PRINCIPLED 
SCIENTIFIC 


~T 


FREDERICK 
"WlN.^LOW 
'•r,A:YI,OR. 


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fu— 


The  Principles  of 
Scientific  Management 


The  Principles  of 
Scientific  Management 


BY 


FREDERICK  WINSLOW  TAYLOR,  M.E.,  Sc.D. 

PAST    PRESIDENT    OF    THE    AMERICAN    SOCIETY    OF 
MECHANICAL    ENGINEERS 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS  PUBLISHERS 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
I9I3 


COPYRIGHT,    191 1 
BY    FREDERICK    W.    TAYLOR 


THE  PLIMPTON  PRESS  NORWOOD   M.\SS.    U.S.A. 


INTRODUCTION 

PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT,  in  his  address  to 
the  Governors  at  the  White  House,  prophet- 
ically remarked  that  ''The  conservation  of  our 
national  resources  is  only  preliminary  to  the  larger 
question  of  national  efficiency." 

The  whole  country  at  once  recognized  the  impor- 
tance of  conserving  our  material  resources  and  a 
large  movement  has  been  started  which  will  be 
effective  in  accomplishing  this  object.  As  yet, 
however,  we  have  but  vaguely  appreciated  the 
importance  of  ''the  larger  question  of  increasing  our 
national  efficiency." 

We  can  see  our  forests  vanishing,  our  water-powers 
going  to  waste,  our  soil  being  carried  by  floods  into 
the  sea;  and  the  end  of  our  coal  and  our  iron  is  in 
sight.  But  our  larger  wastes  of  human  effort,  which 
go  on  every  day  through  such  of  our  acts  as  are 
blundering,  ill-directed,  or  inefficient,  and  which 
Mr.  Roosevelt  refers  to  as  a  lack  of  "national 
efficiency,"  are  less  visible,  less  tangible,  and  are 
but  vaguely  appreciated. 

We  can  see  and  feel  the  waste  of  material  things. 
Awkward,  inefficient,  or  ill-directed  movements  of 
men,  however,  leave  nothing  visible  or  tangible 
behind  them.     Their  appreciation  calls  for  an  act 

6 


6  INTRODUCTION 

of  memory,  an  effort  of  the  imagination.  And  for 
this  reason,  even  though  our  daily  loss  from  this 
source  is  greater  than  from  our  waste  of  material 
things,  the  one  has  stirred  us  deeply,  while  the  other 
has  moved  us  but  httle. 

As  yet  there  has  been  no  public  agitation  for 
''greater  national  efficiency,"  no  meetings  have  been 
called  to  consider  how  this  is  to  be  brought  about. 
And  still  there  are  signs  that  the  need  for  greater 
efficiency  is  widely  felt. 

The  search  for  better,  for  more  competent  men, 
from  the  presidents  of  our  great  companies  down  to 
our  household  servants,  was  never  more  vigorous 
than  it  is  now.  And  more  than  ever  before  is  the 
demand  for  competent  men  in  excess  of  the  supply. 

Whsit  we  are  all  looking  for,  however,  is  the  ready- 
made,  competent  man;  the  man  whom  some  one  else 
has  trained.  It  is  only  when  we  fully  realize  that 
our  dut}',  as  well  as  our  opportunity,  Ues  in  system- 
atically cooperating  to  train  and  to  make  this  com- 
petent man,  instead  of  in  hunting  for  a  man  whom 
some  one  else  has  trained,  that  we  shall  be  on  the 
road  to  national  efficiency. 

In  the  past  the  prevailing  idea  has  been  well 
expressed  in  the  saying  that  "Captains  of  industry 
are  born,  not  made";  and  the  theory  has  been  that 
if  one  could  get  the  right  man,  methods  could  be 
safely  left  to  him.  In  the  future  it  will  be  appreci- 
ated that  our  leaders  must  be  trained  right  as  well 
as  born  right,  and  that  no  great  man  can  (with  the 
old  system  of  personal  management)  hope  to  com- 


INTRODUCTION  7 

pete  with  a  number  of  ordinary  men  who  have  been 
properly  organized  so  as  efficiently  to  cooperate. 

In  the  past  the  man  has  been  first;  in  the  future 
the  system  must  be  first.  This  in  no  sense,  however, 
implies  that  great  men  are  not  needed.  On  the 
contrary,  the  first  object  of  any  good  system  must 
be  that  of  developing  first-class  men;  and  under 
systematic  management  the  best  man  rises  to  the 
top  more  certainly  and  more  rapidly  than  ever 
before. 

This  paper  has  been  written: 

First.  To  point  out,  through  a  series  of  simple 
illustrations,  the  great  loss  which  the  whole  country 
is  suffering  through  inefficiency  in  almost  all  of  our 
daily  acts. 

Second.  To  try  to  convince  the  reader  that  the 
remedy  for  this  inefficiency  lies  in  systematic  man- 
agement, rather  than  in  searching  for  some  unusual 
or  extraordinary  man. 

Third.  To  prove  that  the  best  management  is  a 
true  science,  resting  upon  clearly  defined  laws,  rules, 
and  principles,  as  a  foundation.  And  further  to 
show  that  the  fundamental  principles  of  scientific 
management  are  applicable  to  all  kinds  of  human 
activities,  from  our  simplest  individual  acts  to  the 
work  of  our  great  corporations,  which  call  for  the 
most  elaborate  cooperation.  And,  briefly,  through 
a  series  of  illustrations,  to  convince  the  reader  that 
whenever  these  principles  are  correctly  applied, 
results  must  follow  which  are  truly  astounding. 

This  paper  was  originally  prepared  for  presenta- 


8  INTRODUCTION 

tion  to  The  American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engi- 
neers. The  illustrations  chosen  are  such  as,  it  is 
believed,  will  especially  appeal  to  engineers  and  to 
managers  of  industrial  and  manufacturing  establish- 
ments, and  also  quite  as  much  to  all  of  the  men  who 
are  working  in  these  establishments.  It  is  hoped, 
however,  that  it  will  be  clear  to  other  readers  that 
the  same  principles  can  be  applied  with  equal  force 
to  all  social  activities:  to  the  management  of  our 
homes;  the  management  of  our  farms;  the  manage- 
ment of  the  business  of  our  tradesmen,  large  and 
small;  of  our  churches,  our  philanthropic  institutions, 
our  universities,  and  our  governmental  departments. 


The  Principles  of 
Scientific  Management 

CHAPTER  I 

Fundamentals   of   Scientific   Management 

rpHE  principal  object  of  management  should  be 
-■■  to  secure  the  maximum  prosperity  for  the  em- 
ployer, coupled  with  the  maximum  prosperity  for 
each  employe. 

The  words  ''maximum  prosperity"  are  used,  in 
their  broad  sense,  to  mean  not  only  large  dividends 
for  the  company  or  owner,  but  the  development  of 
every  branch  of  the  business  to  its  highest  state  of 
excellence,  so  that  the  prosperity  may  be  permanent. 

In  the  same  way  maximum  prosperity  for  each 
employe  means  not  only  higher  wages  than  are 
usually  received  by  men  of  his  class,  but,  of  more  im- 
portance still,  it  also  means  the  development  of  each 
man  to  his  state  of  maximum  efficiency,  so  that  he 
may  be  able  to  do,  generally  speaking,  the  highest 
grade  of  work  for  which  his  natural  abilities  fit  him, 
and  it  further  means  giving  him,  when  possible, 
this  class  of  work  to  do. 

It  would  seem  to  be  so  self-evident  that  maxi- 

9 


10     THE   PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

mum  prosperity  for  the  employer,  coupled  with 
maximum  prosperity  for  the  employ^,  ought  to  be 
the  two  leading  objects  of  management,  that  even 
to  state  this  fact  should  be  unnecessary.  And  yet 
there  is  no  question  that,  throughout  the  industrial 
world,  a  large  part  of  the  organization  of  employers, 
as  well  as  employes,  is  for  war  rather  than  for  peace, 
and  that  perhaps  the  majority  on  either  side  do  not 
beheve  that  it  is  possible  so  to  arrange  their  mutual 
relations  that  their  interests  become  identical. 

The  majority  of  these  men  beheve  that  the  funda- 
mental interests  of  employes  and  emploj^ers  are 
necessarily  antagonistic.  Scientific  management,  on 
the  contrary,  has  for  its  very  foundation  the  firm 
conviction  that  the  true  interests  of  the  two  are  one 
and  the  same;  that  prosperity  for  the  employer 
cannot  exist  through  a  long  term  of  years  unless  it 
is  accompanied  by  prosperity  for  the  employe,  and 
vice  versa;  and  that  it  is  possible  to  give  the  work- 
man what  he  most  wants  —  high  wages  —  and  the 
employer  what  he  wants  —  a  low  labor  cost  —  for 
his  manufactures. 

It  is  hoped  that  some  at  least  of  those  who  do  not 
sympathize  with  each  of  these  objects  may  be  led 
to  modify  their  \dews;  that  some  employers,  whose 
attitude  toward  their  workmen  has  been  that  of 
trying  to  get  the  largest  amount  of  work  out  of 
them  for  the  smallest  possible  wages,  may  be  led  to 
see  that  a  more  liberal  policy  toward  their  men  will 
pay  them  better;  and  that  some  of  those  workmen 
who  begrudge  a  fair  and  even  a  large  profit  to  their 


FUNDAMENTALS  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT       11 

employers,  and  who  feel  that  all  of  the  fruits  of  their 
labor  should  belong  to  them,  and  that  those  for 
whom  they  work  and  the  capital  invested  in  the 
business  are  entitled  to  little  or  nothing,  may  be 
led  to  modify  these  views. 

No  one  can  be  found  who  will  deny  that  in  the 
case  of  any  single  individual  the  greatest  prosperity 
can  exist  only  when  that  individual  has  reached  his 
highest  state  of  efficiency;  that  is,  when  he  is  turning 
out  his  largest  daily  output. 

The  truth  of  this  fact  is  also  perfectly  clear  in  the 
case  of  two  men  working  together.  To  illustrate: 
if  you  and  your  workman  have  become  so  skilful 
that  you  and  he  together  are  making  two  pairs  of 
shoes  in  a  day,  while  your  competitor  and  his  work- 
man are  making  only  one  pair,  it  is  clear  that  after 
selling  your  two  pairs  of  shoes  you  can  pay  your 
workman  much  higher  wages  than  your  competitor 
who  produces  only  one  pair  of  shoes  is  able  to  pay 
his  man,  and  that  there  will  still  be  enough  money 
left  over  for  you  to  have  a  larger  profit  than  your 
competitor. 

In  the  case  of  a  more  complicated  manufacturing 
establishment,  it  should  also  be  perfectly  clear  that 
the  greatest  permanent  prosperity  for  the  workman, 
coupled  with  the  greatest  prosperity  for  the  employer, 
can  be  brought  about  only  when  the  work  of  the 
establishment  is  done  with  the  smallest  combined 
expenditure  of  human  effort,  plus  nature's  resources, 
plus  the  cost  for  the  use  of  capital  in  the  shape  of 
machines,   buildings,   etc.     Or,   to   state   the   same 


12     THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

thing  in  a  different  way:  that  the  greatest  pros- 
perity can  exist  only  as  the  result  of  the  greatest 
possible  productivity  of  the  men  and  machines  of  the 
establishment  —  that  is,  when  each  man  and  each 
machine  are  turning  out  the  largest  possible  output; 
because  unless  your  men  and  your  machines  are 
daily  turning  out  more  work  than  others  around 
you,  it  is  clear  that  competition  will  prevent  your 
pajdng  higher  wages  to  your  workmen  than  are  paid 
to  those  of  your  competitor.  And  what  is  true  as  to 
the  possibilit}^  of  pajdng  high  wages  in  the  case  of 
two  companies  competing  close  beside  one  another 
is  also  true  as  to  whole  districts  of  the  country  and 
even  as  to  nations  which  are  in  competition.  In  a 
word,  that  maximum  prosperity  can  exist  only  as 
the  result  of  maximum  productivity.  Later  in  this 
paper  illustrations  will  be  given  of  several  companies 
which  are  earning  large  dividends  and  at  the  same 
time  paying  from  30  per  cent,  to  100  per  cent, 
higher  wages  to  their  men  than  are  paid  to  similar 
men  immediately  around  them,  and  "^ith  whose 
employers  they  are  in  competition.  These  illustra- 
tions wiH  cover  different  t3'pes  of  work,  from  the 
most  elementary  to  the  most  complicated. 

If  the  above  reasoning  is  correct,  it  follows  that 
the  most  important  object  of  both  the  workmen 
and  the  management  should  be  the  training  and 
development  of  each  individual  in  the  establishment, 
so  that  he  can  do  (at  his  fastest  pace  and  with  the 
maximum  of  efficiency)  the  highest  class  of  work  for 
which  his  natural  abilities  fit  him. 


FUNDAMENTALS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       13 

These  principles  appear  to  be  so  self-e^ddent 
that  many  men  may  think  it  almost  childish  to 
state  them.  Let  us,  however,  turn  to  the  facts,  as 
they  actually  exist  in  this  country  and  in  England. 
The  EngUsh  and  American  peoples  are  the  greatest 
sportsmen  in  the  world.  Whenever  an  American 
workman  plays  baseball,  or  an  English  workman 
plays  cricket,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  he  strains  every 
nerve  to  secure  victory  for  his  side.  He  does  his 
very  best  to  make  the  largest  possible  number  of 
runs.  The  universal  sentiment  is  so  strong  that 
any  man  who  fails  to  give  out  all  there  is  in  him  in 
sport  is  branded  as  a  '' quitter,"  and  treated  with 
contempt  by  those  who  are  around  him. 

Wlien  the  same  workman  returns  to  work  on  the 
following  day,  instead  of  using  every  effort  to  turn 
out  the  largest  possible  amount  of  work,  in  a  majority 
of  the  cases  this  man  deliberately  plans  to  do  as 
little  as  he  safely  can  —  to  turn  out  far  less  work 
than  he  is  well  able  to  do  —  in  many  instances  to 
do  not  more  than  one-third  to  one-half  of  a  proper 
day's  work.  And  in  fact  if  he  were  to  do  his  best 
to  turn  out  his  largest  possible  day's  work,  he  would 
be  abused  by  his  fellow-workers  for  so  doing,  even 
more  than  if  he  had  proved  himself  a  "quitter" 
in  sport.  Underworking,  that  is,  dehberately  work- 
ing slowly  so  as  to  avoid  doing  a  full  day's  work, 
''soldiering,"  as  it  is  called  in  this  country,  ''hang- 
ing it  out,"  as  it  is  called  in  England,  ''ca  canae," 
as  it  is  called  in  Scotland,  is  almost  universal  in 
industrial   estabhshments,    and   prevails   also   to   a 


14      l^HE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

large  extent  in  the  building  trades;  and  the  writer 
asserts  -without  fear  of  contradiction  that  this  con- 
stitutes the  greatest  e\'Tl  with  which  the  work- 
ing-people of  both  England  and  America  are  now 
afflicted. 

It  will  be  shown  later  in  this  paper  that  doing 
away  with  slow  working  and  ^'soldiering"  in  all  its 
forms  and  so  arranging  the  relations  between  em- 
ployer and  employe  that  each  workman  vrill  work 
to  his  very  best  advantage  and  at  his  best  speed, 
accompanied  by  the  intimate  cooperation  with  the 
management  and  the  help  (which  the  workman  should 
receive)  from  the  management,  would  result  on  the 
average  in  nearly  doubling  the  output  of  each  man 
and  each  machine.  ^Miat  other  reforms,  among 
those  which  are  being  discussed  by  these  two  nations, 
could  do  as  much  toward  promoting  prosperity, 
toward  the  diminution  of  poverty,  and  the  alle\'ia- 
tion  of  suffering?  America  and  England  have  been 
recently  agitated  over  such  subjects  as  the  tariff, 
the  control  of  the  large  corporations  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  hereditary  power  on  the  other  hand,  and  over 
various  more  or  less  socialistic  proposals  for  taxa- 
tion, etc.  On  these  subjects  both  peoples  have  been 
profoundly  stirred,  and  yet  hardly  a  voice  has  been 
raised  to  call  attention  to  this  vastly  greater  and 
more  important  subject  of  ^'soldiering,"  which  di- 
rectly and  powerfully  affects  the  wages,  the  prosper- 
ity, and  the  hfe  of  almost  every  working-man,  and 
also  quite  as  much  the  prosperity  of  every  industrial 
establishment  in  the  nation. 


FUNDAMENTALS  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT         15 

The  elimination  of  '^soldiering"  and  of  the  several 
causes  of  slow  working  would  so  lower  the  cost  of 
production  that  both  our  home  and  foreign  markets 
would  be  greatly  enlarged,  and  we  could  compete 
on  more  than  even  terms  with  our  rivals.  It  would 
remove  one  of  the  fundamental  causes  for  dull  times, 
for  lack  of  employment,  and  for  poverty,  and  there- 
fore would  have  a  more  permanent  and  far-reaching 
effect  upon  these  misfortunes  than  any  of  the  cura- 
tive remedies  that  are  now  being  used  to  soften  their 
consequences.  It  would  insure  higher  wages  and 
make  shorter  working  hours  and  better  working  and 
home  conditions  possible. 

Why  is  it,  then,  in  the  face  of  the  self-evident 
fact  that  maximum  prosperity  can  exist  only  as  the 
result  of  the  determined  effort  of  each  workman  to 
turn  out  each  day  his  largest  possible  day's  work, 
that  the  great  majority  of  our  men  are  deliberately 
doing  just  the  opposite,  and  that  even  when  the  men 
have  the  best  of  intentions  their  work  is  in  most 
cases  far  from  efficient? 

There  are  three  causes  for  this  condition,  which 
may  be  briefly  summarized  as: 

First.  The  fallacy,  which  has  from  time  imme- 
morial been  almost  universal  among  workmen,  that 
a  material  increase  in  the  output  of  each  man 
or  each  machine  in  the  trade  would  result  in  the 
end  in  throwing  a  large  number  of  men  out  of  work. 

Second.  The  defective  systems  of  management 
which  are  in  common  use,  and  which  make  it  neces- 
sary for  each  workman  to  soldier,  or  work  slowly, 


16       THE   PRINXIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

in    order  that  he  may  protect  his    own    best    in-^ 
terests. 

Third.  The  inefficient  rule-of-thumb  methods, 
which  are  still  almost  universal  in  all  trades,  and  in 
practising  which  our  workmen  waste  a  large  part 
of  their  effort. 

This  paper  will  attempt  to  show  the  enormous 
gains  which  would  result  from  the  substitution  by 
our  workmen  of  scientific  for  rule-of-thumb  methods. 

To  explain  a  httle  more  fully  these  three  causes: 

First.  The  great  majority  of  workmen  still  believe 
that  if  they  were  to  work  at  their  best  speed  they 
would  be  doing  a  great  injustice  to  the  whole  trade 
by  throwing  a  lot  of  men  out  of  work,  and  j^et  the 
history  of  the  development  of  each  trade  shows  that 
each  improvement,  whether  it  be  the  invention  of  a 
new  machine  or  the  introduction  of  a  better  method, 
which  results  in  increasing  the  productive  capacity 
of  the  men  in  the  trade  and  cheapening  the  costs, 
instead  of  throwing  men  out  of  work  make  in  the 
end  work  for  more  men. 

The  cheapening  of  any  article  in  common  use 
almost  immediately  results  in  a  largely  increased 
demand  for  that  article.  Take  the  case  of  shoes, 
for  instance.  The  introduction  of  machiner}'  for 
doing  every  element  of  the  work  which  was  formerly 
done  by  hand  has  resulted  in  making  shoes  at  a 
fraction  of  their  former  labor  cost,  and  in  selling 
them  so  cheap  that  now  almost  ever}^  man,  woman, 
and  child  in  the  working-classes  buys  one  or  two 
pairs  of  shoes  per  year,  and  wears  shoes  all  the  time, 


FUNDAMENTALS  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT       17 

whereas  formerly  each  workman  bought  perhaps  one 
pair  of  shoes  every  five  years,  and  went  barefoot 
most  of  the  time,  wearing  shoes  onl}"  as  a  luxury  or 
as  a  matter  of  the  sternest  necessity.  In  spite  of 
the  enormously  increased  output  of  shoes  per  work- 
man, which  has  come  with  shoe  machinerj^,  the 
demand  for  shoes  has  so  increased  that  there  are 
relatively  more  men  working  in  the  shoe  industry 
now  than  ever  before. 

The  workmen  in  almost  every  trade  have  before 
them  an  object  lesson  of  this  kind,  and  j^et,  because 
they  are  ignorant  of  the  history  of  their  o\\tl  trade 
even,  they  still  firmly  believe,  as  their  fathers  did 
before  them,  that  it  is  against  their  best  interests 
for  each  man  to  turn  out  each  day  as  much  work 
as  possible. 

Under  this  fallacious  idea  a  large  proportion  of 
the  workmen  of  both  countries  each  day  deliberately 
work  slowly  so  as  to  curtail  the  output.  Almost 
every  labor  union  has  made,  or  is  contemplating 
making,  rules  which  have  for  their  object  curtailing 
the  output  of  their  members,  and  those  men  who 
have  the  greatest  influence  with  the  working-people, 
the  labor  leaders  as  well  as  many  people  with  phil- 
anthropic feelings  who  are  helping  them,  are  daily 
spreading  this  fallac}'  and  at  the  same  time  teUing 
them  that  they  are  overworked. 

A  great  deal  has  been  and  is  being  constantly 
said  about  ''sweat-shop"  work  and  conditions.  The 
writer  has  great  sjTnpathy  Ts-ith  those  who  are  over- 
worked, but  on  the  whole  a  greater  sympathy  for 


18       THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

those  who  are  under  paid.  For  every  individual, 
however,  who  is  overworked,  there  are  a  hundred 
who  intentionally  underwork  —  greatly  underwork 
—  every  day  of  their  lives,  and  who  for  this  reason 
deliberately  aid  in  establishing  those  conditions 
which  in  the  end  inevitably  result  in  low  wages. 
And  yet  hardly  a  single  voice  is  being  raised  in  an 
endeavor  to  correct  this  evil. 

As  engineers  and  managers,  we  are  more  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  these  facts  than  any  other 
class  in  the  community,  and  are  therefore  best  fitted 
to  lead  in  a  movement  to  combat  this  fallacious  idea 
by  educating  not  only  the  workmen  but  the  whole 
of  the  country  as  to  the  true  facts.  And  yet  we  are 
practically  doing  nothing  in  this  direction,  and  are 
leaving  this  field  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  labor 
agitators  (many  of  whom  are  misinformed  and  mis- 
guided), and  of  sentimentalists  who  are  ignorant  as 
to  actual  working  conditions. 

Second.  As  to  the  second  cause  for  soldiering  — • 
the  relations  which  exist  between  emploj-ers  and 
emplo3^es  under  almost  all  of  the  systems  of  manage- 
ment which  are  in  common  use  —  it  is  impossible 
in  a  few  words  to  make  it  clear  to  one  not  familiar 
with  this  problem  why  it  is  that  the  ignorance  of 
employers  as  to  the  proper  time  in  which  work  of 
various  kinds  should  be  done  makes  it  for  the  interest 
of  the  workman  to  "soldier." 

The  writer  therefore  quotes  here-^-ith  from  a 
paper  read  before  The  American  Societ}^  of  ^lechan- 
ical  Engineers,  in  June,  1903,  entitled  "Shop  Man- 


FUNDAMENTALS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT        19 

agement,"  which  it  is  hoped  will  explain  fully  this 
cause  for  soldiering: 

"This  loafing  or  soldiering  proceeds  from  two 
causes.  First,  from  the  natural  instinct  and  tendency 
of  men  to  take  it  easy,  which  may  be  called  natural 
soldiering.  Second,  from  more  intricate  second 
thought  and  reasoning  caused  by  their  relations 
with  other  men,  which  may  be  called  systematic 
soldiering. 

''There  is  no  question  that  the  tendency  of  the 
average  man  (in  all  walks  of  life)  is  toward  working 
at  a  slow,  easy  gait,  and  that  it  is  only  after  a  good 
deal  of  thought  and  observation  on  his  part  or  as  a 
result  of  example,  conscience,  or  external  pressure 
that  he  takes  a  more  rapid  pace. 

''There  are,  of  course,  men  of  unusual  energy, 
vitality,  and  ambition  who  naturally  choose  the 
fastest  gait,  who  set  up  their  own  standards,  and 
who  work  hard,  even  though  it  may  be  against  their 
best  interests.  But  these  few  uncommon  men  only 
serve  by  forming  a  contrast  to  emphasize  the  ten- 
dency of  the  average. 

"This  common  tendency  to  'take  it  easy'  is 
greatly  increased  by  bringing  a  number  of  men 
together  on  similar  work  and  at  a  uniform  standard 
rate  of  pay  by  the  day. 

"Under  this  plan  the  better  men  gradually  but 
surely  slow  down  their  gait  to  that  of  the  poor- 
est and  least  efficient.  When  a  naturally  ener- 
getic man  works  for  a  few  days  beside  a  lazy 
one,  the  logic   of   the   situation   is   unanswerable. 


20      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

'Why  should  I  work  hard  when  that  lazy  fellow 
gets  the  same  pay  that  I  do  and  does  only  half  as 
much  work?' 

"A  careful  time  study  of  men  working  under  these 
conditions  will  disclose  facts  which  are  ludicrous  as 
well  as  pitiable. 

*'To  illustrate:  The  writer  has  timed  a  naturally 
energetic  workman  who,  while  going  and  coming 
from  work,  would  walk  at  a  speed  of  from  three  to 
four  miles  per  hour,  and  not  infrequently  trot  home 
after  a  day's  work.  On  arriving  at  his  work  he 
would  immediately  slow  down  to  a  speed  of  about 
one  mile  an  hour.  When,  for  example,  wheeling  a 
loaded  wheelbarrow,  he  would  go  at  a  good  fast  pace 
even  up  hill  in  order  to  be  as  short  a  time  as  possible 
under  load,  and  immediately  on  the  return  walk 
slow  down  to  a  mile  an  hour,  improving  every  oppor- 
tunity for  delay  short  of  actually  sitting  down. 
In  order  to  be  sure  not  to  do  more  than  his  lazy 
neighbor,  he  would  actually  tire  himself  in  his 
effort  to  go  slow. 

''These  men  were  working  under  a  foreman  of 
good  reputation  and  highly  thought  of  by  his 
employer,  who,  when  his  attention  was  called  to 
this  state  of  things,  answered:  'Well,  I  can  keep 
them  from  sitting  down,  but  the  devil  can't  make 
them  get  a  move  on  while  they  are  at  work.' 

"The  natural  laziness  of  men  is  serious,  but  by 
far  the  greatest  evil  from  which  both  workmen  and 
employers  are  suffering  is  the  systematic  soldiering 
which  is  almost  universal  under  all  of  the  ordinary 


FUNDAMENTALS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       21 

schemes  of  management  and  which  results  from  a 
careful  study  on  the  part  of  the  workmen  of  what 
will  promote  their  best  interests. 

''The  writer  was  much  interested  recently  in  hearing 
one  smaU  but  experienced  golf  caddy  boy  of  twelve 
explaining  to  a  green  caddy,  who  had  shown  special 
energy  and  interest,  the  necessity  of  going  slow  and 
lagging  behind  his  man  when  he  came  up  to  the  ball, 
showing  him  that  since  they  were  paid  by  the  hour, 
the  faster  they  went  the  less  money  they  got,  and 
finally  telling  him  that  if  he  went  too  fast  the  other 
boys  would  give  him  a  licking. 

''This  represents  a  type  of  systematic  soldiering 
which  is  not,  however,  very  serious,  since  it  is  done 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  employer,  who  can  quite 
easily  break  it  up  if  he  wishes. 

"The  greater  part  of  the  systematic  soldiering, 
however,  is  done  by  the  men  with  the  deliberate 
object  of  keeping  their  employers  ignorant  of  how 
fast  work  can  be  done. 

"So  universal  is  soldiering  for  this  purpose  that 
hardly  a  competent  workman  can  be  found  in  a 
large  establishment,  whether  he  works  by  the  day 
or  on  piece  work,  contract  work,  or  under  any  of 
the  ordinary  systems,  who  does  not  devote  a  con- 
siderable part  of  his  time  to  studying  just  how  slow 
he  can  work  and  still  convince  his  employer  that  he 
is  going  at  a  good  pace. 

"The  causes  for  this  are,  briefly,  that  practically 
all  employers  determine  upon  a  maximum  sum 
which  they  feel  it  is  right  for  each  of  their  classes 


22      THE  PRI^XIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  M.^XAGEMEXT 

of  employees  to  earn  per  day,  whether  their  men 
work  by  the  day  or  piece. 

''Each  workman  soon  finds  out  about  what  this 
figure  is  for  his  particular  case,  and  he  also  realizes 
that  when  his  employer  is  con\'inced  that  a  man  is 
capable  of  doing  more  work  than  he  has  done,  he 
will  find  sooner  or  later  some  way  of  compelling  him 
to  do  it  with  httle  or  no  increase  of  pay. 

'^  Employers  derive  their  knowledge  of  how  much 
of  a  given  class  of  work  can  be  done  in  a  day  from 
either  their  own  experience,  which  has  frequently 
gro^n  hazy  T^-ith  age,  from  casual  and  unsystematic 
observation  of  their  men,  or  at  best  from  records 
which  are  kept,  shoeing  the  quickest  time  in  which 
each  job  has  been  done.  In  many  cases  the  employer 
will  feel  almost  certain  that  a  given  job  can  be  done 
faster  than  it  has  been,  but  he  rarely  cares  to  take 
the  drastic  measures  necessary  to  force  men  to  do  it 
in  the  quickest  time,  imless  he  has  an  actual  record 
proving  conclusiveh^  how  fast  the  work  can  be  done. 

"It  e\"idently  becomes  for  each  man's  interest, 
then,  to  see  that  no  job  is  done  faster  than  it  has 
been  in  the  past.  The  younger  and  less  experienced 
men  are  taught  this  by  their  elders,  and  aU  possible 
persuasion  and  social  pressure  is  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  greedy  and  selfish  men  to  keep  them  from 
making  new  records  which  result  in  temporarily 
increasing  their  wages,  while  all  those  who  come 
after  them  are  made  to  work  harder  for  the  same 
old  pay. 

''Under  the  best  day  work  of  the  ordinary  t^'pe, 


FUNDAMENTALS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT        23 

when  accurate  records  are  kept  of  the  amount  of 
work  done  by  each  man  and  of  his  efficiency,  and 
when  each  man's  wages  are  raised  as  he  improves, 
and  those  who  fail  to  rise  to  a  certain  standard  are 
discharged  and  a  fresh  supply  of  carefully  selected 
men  are  given  work  in  their  places,  both  the  natural 
loafing  and  systematic  soldiering  can  be  largely 
broken  up.  This  can  only  be  done,  however,  when 
the  men  are  thoroughly  convinced  that  there  is  no 
intention  of  establishing  piece  work  even  in  the 
remote  future,  and  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  make 
men  believe  this  when  the  work  is  of  such  a  nature 
that  they  believe  piece  work  to  be  practicable.  In 
most  cases  their  fear  of  making  a  record  which  will 
be  used  as  a  basis  for  piece  work  will  cause  them  to 
soldier  as  much  as  they  dare. 

"It  is,  however,  under  piece  work  that  the  art 
of  systematic  soldiering  is  thoroughly  developed; 
after  a  workman  has  had  the  price  per  piece  of  the 
work  he  is  doing  lowered  two  or  three  times  as  a 
result  of  his  having  worked  harder  and  increased 
his  output,  he  is  likely  entirely  to  lose  sight  of  his 
employer's  side  of  the  case  and  become  imbued  with 
a  grim  determination  to  have  no  more  cuts  if  soldier- 
ing can  prevent  it.  Unfortunately  for  the  character 
of  the  workman,  soldiering  involves  a  deliberate 
attempt  to  mislead  and  deceive  his  employer,  and 
thus  upright  and  straightforward  workmen  are  com- 
pelled to  become  more  or  less  hypocritical.  The 
employer  is  soon  looked  upon  as  an  antagonist,  if 
not  an  enemy,  and  the  mutual  confidence  which 


24      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  M.AJN'AGEMENT 

should  exist  between  a  leader  and  his  men,  the 
enthusiasm,  the  feeling  that  they  are  all  working 
for  the  same  end  and  will  share  in  the  results  is 
entirely  lacking. 

''The  feeling  of  antagonism  under  the  ordinan^ 
piece-work  system  becomes  in  many  cases  so  marked 
on  the  part  of  the  men  that  any  proposition  made 
by  their  employers,  however  reasonable,  is  looked 
upon  with  suspicion,  and  soldiering  becomes  such  a 
fixed  habit  that  men  will  frequent  1}^  take  pains  to 
restrict  the  product  of  machines  which  they  are 
running  when  even  a  large  increase  in  output  would 
involve  no  more  work  on  their  part." 

Third.  As  to  the  third  cause  for  slow  work,  con- 
siderable space  wi\[  later  in  this  paper  be  devoted 
to  illustrating  the  great  gain,  both  to  employers 
and  employes,  which  results  from  the  substitution 
of  scientific  for  rule-of-thumb  methods  in  even  the 
smallest  details  of  the  work  of  exery  trade.  The 
enormous  saving  of  time  and  therefore  increase  in 
the  output  which  it  is  possible  to  effect  through 
eliminating  unnecessary  motions  and  substituting 
fast  for  slow  and  inefficient  motions  for  the  men 
working  in  any  of  our  trades  can  be  fully  reahzed 
only  after  one  has  personally  seen  the  improvement 
which  results  from  a  thorough  motion  and  time  stud}", 
made  by  a  competent  man. 

To  explain  brieflj^:  owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
workmen  in  all  of  our  trades  have  been  taught  the 
details  of  their  work  by  obser^^ation  of  those  immedi- 
ately around  them,  there  are  many  different  ways  in 


FUNDAMENTALS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT        25 

common  use  for  doing  the  same  thing,  perhaps  forty, 
fifty,  or  a  hundred  ways  of  doing  each  act  in  each 
trade,  and  for  the  same  reason  there  is  a  great 
variety  in  the  implements  used  for  each  class  of 
work.  Now,  among  the  various  methods  and 
implements  used  in  each  element  of  each  trade 
there  is  always  one  method  and  one  implement 
which  is  quicker  and  better  than  any  of  the  rest. 
And  this  one  best  method  and  best  implement  can 
only  be  discovered  or  developed  through  a  scientific 
study  and  analysis  of  all  of  the  methods  and  imple- 
ments in  use,  together  with  accurate,  minute,  motion 
and  time  study.  This  involves  the  gradual  substi- 
tution of  science  for  rule  of  thumb  throughout  the 
mechanic  arts. 

This  paper  will  show  that  the  underlying  phi- 
losophy of  all  of  the  old  systems  of  management  in 
common  use  makes  it  imperative  that  each  work- 
man shall  be  left  with  the  final  responsibility  for 
doing  his  job  practically  as  he  thinks  best,  with 
comparatively  little  help  and  advice  from  the 
management.  And  it  will  also  show  that  because 
of  this  isolation  of  workmen,  it  is  in  most  cases 
impossible  for  the  men  working  under  these  systems 
to  do  their  work  in  accordance  with  the  rules  and 
laws  of  a  science  or  art,  even  where  one  exists. 

The  writer  asserts  as  a  general  principle  (and  he 
proposes  to  give  illustrations  tending  to  prove  the 
fact  later  in  this  paper)  that  in  almost  all  of  the 
mechanic  arts  the  science  which  underlies  each  act 
of  each  workman  is  so  great  and  amounts  to  so  much 


26      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

that  the  workman  who  is  best  suited  to  actually 
doing  the  work  is  incapable  of  fully  understanding 
this  science,  without  the  guidance  and  help  of  those 
who  are  working  with  him  or  over  him,  either  through 
lack  of  education  or  through  insufficient  mental 
capacity.  In  order  that  the  work  may  be  done  in 
accordance  "^dth  scientific  laws,  it  is  necessary  that 
there  shall  be  a  far  more  equal  division  of  the  respon- 
sibility between  the  management  and  the  workmen 
than  exists  under  smy  of  the  ordinary  tj^pes  of 
management.  Those  in  the  management  whose 
duty  it  is  to  develop  this  science  should  also  guide 
and  help  the  workman  in  working  under  it,  and 
should  assume  a  much  larger  share  of  the  respon- 
sibility for  results  than  under  usual  conditions  is 
assumed  by  the  management. 

The  body  of  this  paper  will  make  it  clear  that,  to 
work  according  to  scientific  laws,  the  management 
must  take  over  and  perform  much  of  the  work  which 
is  now  left  to  the  men;  almost  every  act  of  the  work- 
man should  be  preceded  by  one  or  more  preparatory 
acts  of  the  management  which  enable  him  to  do  his 
w^ork  better  and  quicker  than  he  other-^ise  could. 
And  each  man  should  daily  be  taught  by  and  receive 
the  most  friendly  help  from  those  who  are  over  him, 
instead  of  being,  at  the  one  extreme,  driven  or 
coerced  by  his  bosses,  and  at  the  other  left  to  his 
own  unaided  devices. 

This  close,  intimate,  personal  cooperation  between 
the  management  and  the  men  is  of  the  essence  of 
modern  scientific  or  task  management. 


FUNDAMENTALS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       27 

It  will  be  shown  by  a  series  of  practical  illustra- 
tions that,  through  this  friendly  cooperation,  namely, 
through  sharing  equally  in  every  day's  burden,  all 
of  the  great  obstacles  (above  described)  to  obtain- 
ing the  maximum  output  for  each  man  and  each 
machine  in  the  establishment  are  swept  away.  The 
30  per  cent,  to  100  per  cent,  increase  in  wages  which 
the  workmen  are  able  to  earn  beyond  what  they 
receive  under  the  old  type  of  management,  coupled 
with  the  daily  intimate  shoulder  to  shoulder  contact 
with  the  management,  entirely  removes  all  cause  for 
soldiering.  And  in  a  few  years,  under  this  system, 
the  workmen  have  before  them  the  object  lesson 
of  seeing  that  a  great  increase  in  the  output  per  man 
results  in  giving  employment  to  more  men,  instead 
of  throwing  men  out  of  work,  thus  completely  eradi- 
cating the  fallacy  that  a  larger  output  for  each  man 
will  throw  other  men  out  of  work. 

It  is  the  writer's  judgment,  then,  that  while  much 
can  be  done  and  should  be  done  by  writing  and  talk- 
ing toward  educating  not  only  workmen,  but  all 
classes  in  the  community,  as  to  the  importance  of 
obtaining  the  maximum  output  of  each  man  and 
each  machine,  it  is  only  through  the  adoption  of 
modern  scientific  management  that  this  great  prob- 
lem can  be  finally  solved.  Probably  most  of  the 
readers  of  this  paper  will  say  that  all  of  this  is  mere 
theory.  On  the  contrary,  the  theory,  or  philosophy, 
of  scientific  management  is  just  beginning  to  be 
understood,  whereas  the  management  itself  has 
been  a  gradual  evolution,  extending  over  a  period 


28      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

of  nearly  thirty  years.  And  during  this  time  the 
employes  of  one  company  after  another,  including  a 
large  range  and  diversity  of  industries,  have  grad- 
ually changed  from  the  ordinary  to  the  scientific 
type  of  management.  At  least  50,000  workmen  in 
the  United  States  are  now  employed  under  this 
system;  and  they  are  receiving  from  30  per  cent, 
to  100  per  cent,  higher  wages  daily  than  are  paid 
to  men  of  similar  caliber  with  whom  they  are  sur- 
rounded, while  the  companies  employing  them  are 
more  prosperous  than  ever  before.  In  these  com- 
panies the  output,  per  man  and  per  machine,  has 
on  an  average  been  doubled.  During  all  these 
years  there  has  never  been  a  single  strike  among 
the  men  working  under  this  system.  In  place  of 
the  suspicious  watchfulness  and  the  more  or  less 
open  warfare  which  characterizes  the  ordinary  types 
of  management,  there  is  universally  friendly  cooper- 
ation between  the  management  and  the  men. 

Several  papers  have  been  written,  describing  the 
expedients  which  have  been  adopted  and  the  details 
which  have  been  developed  under  scientific  manage- 
ment and  the  steps  to  be  taken  in  changing  from 
the  ordinary  to  the  scientific  type.  But  unfortu- 
nately most  of  the  readers  of  these  papers  have 
mistaken  the  mechanism  for  the  true  essence.  Sci- 
entific management  fundamentally  consists  of  certain 
broad  general  principles,  a  certain  philosophy,  which 
can  be  applied  in  many  ways,  and  a  description  of 
what  any  one  man  or  men  may  believe  to  be  the 
best  mechanism  for  applying  these  general  principles 


FUNDAMENTALS  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT        29 

should  in  no  way  be  confused  with  the  principles 
themselves. 

It  is  not  here  claimed  that  any  single  panacea 
exists  for  all  of  the  troubles  of  the  working-people 
or  of  employers.  As  long  as  some  people  are  born 
lazy  or  inefficient,  and  others  are  born  greedy  and 
brutal,  as  long  as  vice  and  crime  are  with  us,  just 
so  long  will  a  certain  amount  of  poverty,  misery,  and 
unhappiness  be  with  us  also.  No  system  of  manage- 
ment, no  single  expedient  within  the  control  of  any 
man  or  any  set  of  men  can  insure  continuous  pros- 
perity to  either  workmen  or  employers.  Prosperity 
depends  upon  so  many  factors  entirely  beyond  the 
control  of  any  one  set  of  men,  any  state,  or  even 
any  one  country,  that  certain  periods  will  inevitably 
come  when  both  sides  must  suffer,  more  or  less. 
It  is  claimed,  however,  that  under  scientific  manage- 
ment the  intermediate  periods  will  be  far  more 
prosperous,  far  happier,  and  more  free  from  discord 
and  dissension.  And  also,  that  the  periods  will  be 
fewer,  shorter  and  the  suffering  less.  And  this  will 
be  particularly  true  in  any  one  town,  any  one  section 
of  the  country,  or  any  one  state  which  first  substi- 
tutes the  principles  of  scientific  management  for  the 
rule  of  thumb. 

That  these  principles  are  certain  to  come  into 
general  use  practically  throughout  the  civilized 
world,  sooner  or  later,  the  writer  is  profoundly  con- 
vinced, and  the  sooner  they  come  the  better  for  all 
the  people. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Principles  of  Scientific  Management 

nPHE  \\Titer  has  found  that  there  are  three  ques- 
tions  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  men  when  they 
become  interested  in  scientific  management. 

First.  Wlierein  do  the  principles  of  scientific  man- 
agement differ  essentially  from  those  of  ordinary 
management? 

Second.  ^Miy  are  better  results  attained  under 
scientific  management  than  under  the  other  types? 

Third.  Is  not  the  most  important  problem  that 
of  getting  the  right  man  at  the  head  of  the  company? 
And  if  you  have  the  right  man  cannot  the  choice 
of  the  type  of  management  be  safelj^  left  to  him? 

One  of  the  principal  objects  of  the  following  pages 
vri]l  be  to  give  a  satisfactory  answer  to  these  ques- 
tions. 

THE    FIN'EST    type    OF    ORDIN.^Y    MANAGE^MENT 

Before  starting  to  illustrate  the  principles  of  scien- 
tific management,  or  ''task  management"  as  it  is 
briefly  called,  it  seems  desirable  to  outhne  what  the 
writer  believes  will  be  recognized  as  the  best  type  of 
management  which  is  in  common  use.  This  is  done 
so  that  the  great  difference  between  the  best  of  the 

30 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT      31 

ordinary  management  and  scientific  management 
may  be  fully  appreciated. 

In  an  industrial  establishment  which  employs  say 
from  500  to  1000  workmen,  there  will  be  found  in 
many  cases  at  least  twenty  to  thirty  different  trades. 
The  workmen  in  each  of  these  trades  have  had  their 
knowledge  handed  down  to  them  by  word  of  mouth, 
through  the  many  years  in  which  their  trade  has 
been  developed  from  the  primitive  condition,  in 
which  our  far-distant  ancestors  each  one  practised 
the  rudiments  of  many  different  trades,  to  the 
present  state  of  great  and  growing  subdivision  of 
labor,  in  which  each  man  speciahzes  upon  some  com- 
paratively small  class  of  work. 

The  ingenuity  of  each  generation  has  developed 
quicker  and  better  methods  for  doing  every  element 
of  the  work  in  every  trade.  Thus  the  methods  which 
are  now  in  use  may  in  a  broad  sense  be  said  to  be 
an  evolution  representing  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
and  best  of  the  ideas  which  have  been  developed 
since  the  starting  of  each  trade.  However,  while  this 
is  true  in  a  broad  sense,  only  those  who  are  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  each  of  these  trades  are  fully 
aware  of  the  fact  that  in  hardly  any  element  of  any 
trade  is  there  uniformity  in  the  methods  which  are 
used.  Instead  of  having  only  one  way  which  is 
generally  accepted  as  a  standard,  there  are  in  daily 
use,  say,  fifty  or  a  hundred  different  ways  of  doing 
each  element  of  the  work.  And  a  little  thought 
will  make  it  clear  that  this  must  inevitably  be  the 
case,  since  our  methods  have  been  handed  down  from 


32       THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

man  to  man  by  word  of  mouth,  or  have,  in  most 
cases,  been  almost  unconsciously  learned  through 
personal  observation.  Practically  in  no  instances 
have  they  been  codified  or  sj^stematically  analyzed 
or  described.  The  ingenuity  and  experience  of  each 
generation  —  of  each  decade,  even,  have  without 
doubt  handed  over  better  methods  to  the  next. 
This  mass  of  rule-of-thumb  or  traditional  knowledge 
may  be  said  to  be  the  principal  asset  or  possession 
of  every  tradesman.  Now,  in  the  best  of  the  ordinary 
types  of  management,  the  managers  recognize  frankly 
the  fact  that  the  500  or  1000  workmen,  included  in 
the  twenty  to  thirty  trades,  who  are  under  them, 
possess  this  mass  of  traditional  knowledge,  a  large 
part  of  which  is  not  in  the  possession  of  the  manage- 
ment. The  management,  of  course,  includes  fore- 
men and  superintendents,  who  themselves  have  been 
in  most  cases  first-class  workers  at  their  trades. 
And  yet  these  foremen  and  superintendents  know, 
better  than  any  one  else,  that  their  own  knowledge 
and  personal  skill  falls  far  short  of  the  combined 
knowledge  and  dexterity  of  all  the  workmen  under 
them.  The  most  experienced  managers  therefore 
frankly  place  before  their  workmen  the  problem  of 
doing  the  work  in  the  best  and  most  economical 
way.  They  recognize  the  task  before  them  as  that 
of  inducing  each  workman  to  use  his  best  endeavors, 
his  hardest  work,  all  his  traditional  knowledge,  his 
skill,  his  ingenuity,  and  his  good-will  —  in  a  word, 
his  ''initiative,"  so  as  to  yield  the  largest  possible 
return  to  his  employer.     The  problem  before  the 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT      33 

management,  then,  may  be  briefly  said  to  be  that 
of  obtaining  the  best  initiative  of  every  workman. 
And  the  writer  uses  the  word  '^initiative"  in  its 
broadest  sense,  to  cover  all  of  the  good  qualities 
sought  for  from  the  men. 

On  the  other  hand,  no  intelligent  manager  would 
hope  to  obtain  in  any  full  measure  the  initiative  of 
his  workmen  unless  he  felt  that  he  was  giving  them 
something  more  than  they  usually  receive  from  their 
employers.  Only  those  among  the  readers  of  this 
paper  who  have  been  managers  or  who  have  worked 
themselves  at  a  trade  realize  how  far  the  average 
workman  falls  short  of  giving  his  employer  his  full 
initiative.  It  is  well  within  the  mark  to  state  that 
in  nineteen  out  of  twenty  industrial  estabhshments 
the  workmen  believe  it  to  be  directly  against  their 
interests  to  give  their  employers  their  best  initiative, 
and  that  instead  of  working  hard  to  do  the  largest 
possible  amount  of  work  and  the  best  quality  of  work 
for  their  employers,  they  deliberately  work  as  slowly 
as  they  dare  while  they  at  the  same  time  try  to  make 
those  over  them  believe  that  they  are  working  fast.^ 

The  writer  repeats,  therefore,  that  in  order  to 
have  any  hope  of  obtaining  the  initiative  of  his 
workmen  the  manager  must  give  some  special 
incentive  to  his  men  beyond  that  which  is  given  to 
the  average  of  the  trade.  This  incentive  can  be 
given   in   several   different   ways,  as,  for   example, 

1  The  writer  has  tried  to  make  the  reason  for  this  unfortunate  state  of 
things  clear  in  a  paper  entitled  "Shop  Management,"  read  before  the 
American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers." 


34      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

the  hope  of  rapid  promotion  or  advancement; 
higher  wages,  either  in  the  form  of  generous  piece- 
work prices  or  of  a  premium  or  bonus  of  some  kind 
for  good  and  rapid  work;  shorter  hours  of  labor; 
better  surroundings  and  working  conditions  than  are 
ordinarily  given,  etc.,  and,  above  all,  this  special 
incentive  should  be  accompanied  by  that  personal 
consideration  for,  and  friendly  contact  with,  his 
workmen  which  comes  only  from  a  genuine  and 
kindly  interest  in  the  welfare  of  those  under  him. 
It  is  only  by  giving  a  special  inducement  or  '^  incen- 
tive" of  this  kind  that  the  emploj^r  can  hope 
even  approximately  to  get  the  "initiative"  of  his 
workmen.  Under  the  ordinary  typ^  of  manage- 
ment the  necessity  for  offering  the  workman  a 
special  inducement  has  come  to  be  so  generally 
recognized  that  a  large  proportion  of  those  most 
interested  in  the  subject  look  upon  the  adoption 
of  some  one  of  the  modern  schemes  for  paying  men 
(such  as  piece  work,  the  premium  plan,  or  the 
bonus  plan,  for  instance)  as  practically  the  whole 
system  of  management.  Under  scientific  manage- 
ment, however,  the  particular  pay  system  which  is 
adopted  is  merely  one  of  the  subordinate  elements. 

Broadly  speaking,  then,  the  best  type  of  manage- 
ment in  ordinary  use  ma}^  be  defined  as  manage- 
ment in  which  the  workmen  give  their  best  initiative 
and  in  return  receive  some  special  incentive  from 
their  employers.  This  type  of  management  will  be 
referred  to  as  the  management  of  "initiative  and 
incentive^ ^  in  contradistinction  to  scientific  manage- 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       35 

ment,  or  task  management,  with  which  it  is  to  be 
compared. 

The  writer  hopes  that  the  management  of  "initia- 
tive and  incentive"  will  be  recognized  as  representing 
the  best  type  in  ordinary  use,  and  in  fact  he  believes 
that  it  will  be  hard  to  persuade  the  average  mana- 
ger that  anything  better  exists  in  the  whole  field  than 
this  type.  The  task  which  the  writer  has  before  him, 
then,  is  the  difficult  one  of  trying  to  prove  in  a 
thoroughly  convincing  way  that  there  is  another 
type  of  management  which  is  not  only  better  but 
overwhelmingly  better  than  the  management  of 
"initiative  and  incentive." 

The  universal  prejudice  in  favor  of  the  manage- 
ment of  "initiative  and  incentive"  is  so  strong  that 
no  mere  theoretical  advantages  which  can  be  pointed 
out  will  be  hkely  to  convince  the  average  manager 
that  any  other  system  is  better.  It  will  be  upon  a 
series  of  practical  illustrations  of  the  actual  working 
of  the  two  systems  that  the  writer  will  depend  in 
his  efforts  to  prove  that  scientific  management  is  so 
greatly  superior  to  other  types.  Certain  elementary 
principles,  a  certain  philosophy,  will  however  be 
recognized  as  the  essence  of  that  which  is  being  illus- 
trated in  all  of  the  practical  examples  which  will  be 
given.  And  the  broad  principles  in  which  the  scien- 
tific system  differs  from  the  ordinary  or  "rule-of- 
thumb"  system  are  so  simple  in  their  nature  that  it 
seems  desirable  to  describe  them  before  starting  with 
the  illustrations. 

Under  the  old  type  of  management  success  depends 


36      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

almost  entirely  upon  getting  the  '' initiative"  of  the 
workmen,  and  it  is  indeed  a  rare  case  in  which  this 
initiative  is  really  attained.  Under  scientific  man- 
agement the  'initiative"  of  the  workmen  (that  is, 
their  hard  work,  their  good-will,  and  their  ingenuity) 
is  obtained  with  absolute  uniformity  and  to  a  greater 
extent  than  is  possible  under  the  old  system ;  and  in 
addition  to  this  improvement  on  the  part  of  the  men, 
the  managers  assume  new  burdens,  new  duties,  and 
responsibihties  never  dreamed  of  in  the  past.  The 
managers  assume,  for  instance,  the  burden  of  gather- 
ing together  all  of  the  traditional  knowledge  which 
in  the  past  has  been  possessed  by  the  workmen  and 
then  of  classifying,  tabulating,  and  reducing  this 
knowledge  to  rules,  laws,  and  formulae  which  are  im- 
mensely helpful  to  the  workmen  in  doing  their  daily 
work.  In  addition  to  developing  a  science  in  this  way, 
the  management  take  on  three  other  types  of  duties 
which  involve  new  and  heavy  burdens  for  themselves. 

These  new  duties  are  grouped  under  four  heads: 

First.  They  develop  a  science  for  each  element 
of  a  man's  work,  which  replaces  the  old  rule-of- 
thumb  method. 

Second.  They  scientifically  select  and  then  train, 
teach,  and  develop  the  workman,  whereas  in  the 
past  he  chose  his  own  work  and  trained  himself  as 
best  he  could. 

Third.  They  heartily  cooperate  with  the  men  so 
as  to  insure  all  of  the  work  being  done  in  accord- 
ance with  the  principles  of  the  science  which  has 
been  developed. 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT      37 

Fourth.  There  is  an  almost  equal  division  of  the 
work  and  the  responsibility  between  the  management 
and  the  workmen.  The  management  take  over  all 
work  for  which  they  are  better  fitted  than  the  work- 
men, while  in  the  past  almost  all  of  the  work  and 
the  greater  part  of  the  responsibihty  were  thrown 
upon  the  men. 

It  is  this  combination  of  the  initiative  of  the  work- 
men, coupled  with  the  new  types  of  work  done  by 
the  management,  that  makes  scientific  management 
so  much  more  efiicient  than  the  old  plan. 

Three  of  these  elements  exist  in  many  cases,  under 
the  management  of  "initiative  and  incentive,"  in  a 
small  and  rudimentary  way,  but  they  are,  under  this 
management,  of  minor  importance,  whereas  under 
scientific  management  they  form  the  very  essence  of 
the  whole  system. 

The  fourth  of  these  elements,  "an  almost  equal 
division  of  the  responsibihty  between  the  manage- 
ment and  the  workmen,"  requires  further  explana- 
tion. The  philosophy  of  the  management  of  "initia- 
tive and  incentive"  makes  it  necessary  for  each 
workman  to  bear  almost  the  entire  responsibihty 
for  the  general  plan  as  well  as  for  each  detail  of  his 
work,  and  in  many  cases  for  his  implements  as  well. 
In  addition  to  this  he  must  do  all  of  the  actual 
physical  labor.  The  development  of  a  science,  on 
the  other  hand,  involves  the  estabhshment  of  many 
rules,  laws,  and  formulae  which  replace  the  judgment 
of  the  individual  workman  and  which  can  be  effect- 
ively used   only   after   having  been   systematically 


38      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

recorded,  indexed,  etc.  The  practical  use  of  scientific 
data  also  calls  for  a  room  in  which  to  keep  the  books, 
records,^  etc.,  and  a  desk  for  the  planner  to  work  at. 
Thus  all  of  the  planning  which  under  the  old  system 
was  done  by  the  workman,  as  a  result  of  his  personal 
experience,  must  of  necessity  under  the  new  system 
be  done  by  the  management  in  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  the  science;  because  even  if  the  workman 
was  well  suited  to  the  development  and  use  of 
scientific  data,  it  would  be  physically  impossible 
for  him  to  work  at  his  machine  and  at  a  desk  at  the 
same  time.  It  is  also  clear  that  in  most  cases  one 
type  of  man  is  needed  to  plan  ahead  and  an  entirely 
different  type  to  execute  the  work. 

The  man  in  the  planning  room,  whose  specialty 
under  scientific  management  is  planning  ahead,  in- 
variably finds  that  the  work  can  be  done  better  and 
more  economically  by  a  subdivision  of  the  labor; 
each  act  of  each  mechanic,  for  example,  should 
be  preceded  by  various  preparatory  acts  done  by 
other  men.  And  all  of  this  involves,  as  we  have 
said,  "an  almost  equal  division  of  the  responsi- 
bihty  and  the  work  between  the  management  and 
the  workman." 

To  summarize:  Under  the  management  of  "initia- 
tive and  incentive"  practically  the  whole  problem 
is  "up  to  the  workman,"  while  under  scientific 
management  fully  one-half  of  the  problem  is  "up 
to  the  management." 

'For  example,  the  records  containing  the  data  used  under  scientific 
management  in  an  ordinary  machine-shop  fill  thousands  of  pages. 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       39 

Perhaps  the  most  prominent  single  element  in 
modern  scientific  management  is  the  task  idea. 
The  work  of  every  workman  is  fully  planned  out 
by  the  management  at  least  one  day  in  advance, 
and  each  man  receives  in  most  cases  complete  writ- 
ten instructions,  describing  in  detail  the  task  which 
he  is  to  accomplish,  as  well  as  the  means  to  be 
used  in  doing  the  work.  And  the  work  planned  in 
advance  in  this  way  constitutes  a  task  which  is  to 
be  solved,  as  explained  above,  not  by  the  workman 
alone,  but  in  almost  all  cases  by  the  joint  effort 
of  the  workman  and  the  management.  This  task 
specifies  not  only  what  is  to  be  done  but  how  it  is 
to  be  done  and  the  exact  time  allowed  for  doing  it. 
And  whenever  the  workman  succeeds  in  doing  his 
task  right,  and  within  the  time  limit  specified,  he 
receives  an  addition  of  from  30  per  cent,  to  100 
per  cent,  to  his  ordinary  wages.  These  tasks  are 
carefully  planned,  so  that  both  good  and  careful 
work  are  called  for  in  their  performance,  but  it 
should  be  distinctly  understood  that  in  no  case  is 
the  workman  called  upon  to  work  at  a  pace  which 
would  be  injurious  to  his  health.  The  task  is  always 
so  regulated  that  the  man  who  is  well  suited  to  his 
job  will  thrive  while  working  at  this  rate  during 
a  long  term  of  years  and  grow  happier  and  more 
prosperous,  instead  of  being  overworked.  Scientific 
management  consists  very  largely  in  preparing  for 
and  carrying  out  these  tasks. 

The  writer  is  fully  aware  that  to  perhaps  most 
of   the   readers   of    this    paper    the    four    elements 


40      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

which  differentiate  the  new  management  from  the 
old  will  at  first  appear  to  be  merely  high-sounding 
phrases;  and  he  would  again  repeat  that  he  has  no 
idea  of  convincing  the  reader  of  their  value  merely 
through  announcing  their  existence.  His  hope  of 
carr}4ng  conviction  rests  upon  demonstrating  the 
tremendous  force  and  effect  of  these  four  elements 
through  a  series  of  practical  illustrations.  It  wall 
be  shown,  first,  that  they  can  be  appHed  absolutely 
to  all  classes  of  work,  from  the  most  elementary  to 
the  most  intricate;  and  second,  that  when  they  are 
apphed,  the  results  must  of  necessity  be  overwhelm- 
ingly greater  than  those  which  it  is  possible  to  attain 
under  the  management  of  initiative  and  incentive. 

The  first  illustration  is  that  of  handhng  pig  iron, 
and  this  work  is  chosen  because  it  is  typical  of 
perhaps  the  crudest  and  most  elementary  form  of 
labor  which  is  performed  by  man.  This  work  is 
done  by  men  \Nith  no  other  implements  than  their 
hands.  The  pig-iron  handler  stoops  down,  picks 
up  a  pig  weighing  about  92  pounds,  walks  for  a  few 
feet  or  yards  and  then  drops  it  on  to  the  ground  or 
upon  a  pile.  This  work  is  so  crude  and  elementary 
in  its  nature  that  the  writer  firmly  beheves  that  it 
would  be  possible  to  train  an  intelligent  gorilla  so  as 
to  become  a  more  efficient  pig-iron  handler  than  any 
man  can  be.  Yet  it  will  be  sIiowtl  that  the  science 
of  handling  pig  iron  is  so  great  and  amounts  to 
so  much  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  man  w^ho  is 
best  suited  to  this  type  of  work  to  understand  the 
principles  of  this  science,  or  even  to  work  in  accord- 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       41 

ance  with  these  principles  without  the  aid  of  a  man 
better  educated  than  he  is.  And  the  further  illustra- 
tions to  be  given  will  make  it  clear  that  in  almost 
all  of  the  mechanic  arts  the  science  which  underlies 
each  workman's  act  is  so  great  and  amounts  to  so 
much  that  the  workman  who  is  best  suited  actually 
to  do  the  work  is  incapable  (either  through  lack  of 
education  or  through  insufficient  mental  capacity) 
of  understanding  this  science.  This  is  announced 
as  a  general  principle,  the  truth  of  which  will  become 
apparent  as  one  illustration  after  another  is  given. 
After  showing  these  four  elements  in  the  handling 
of  pig  iron,  several  illustrations  will  be  given  of  their 
application  to  different  kinds  of  work  in  the  field 
of  the  mechanic  arts,  at  intervals  in  a  rising  scale, 
beginning  with  the  simplest  and  ending  with  the 
more  intricate  forms  of  labor. 

One  of  the  first  pieces  of  work  undertaken  by 
us,  when  the  writer  started  to  introduce  scientific 
management  into  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company, 
was  to  handle  pig  iron  on  task  work.  The  opening 
of  the  Spanish  War  found  some  80,000  tons  of  pig 
iron  placed  in  small  piles  in  an  open  field  adjoining 
the  works.  Prices  for  pig  iron  had  been  so  low  that 
it  could  not  be  sold  at  a  profit,  and  it  therefore  had 
been  stored.  With  the  opening  of  the  Spanish  War 
the  price  of  pig  iron  rose,  and  this  large  accumulation 
of  iron  was  sold.  This  gave  us  a  good  opportunity 
to  show  the  workmen,  as  well  as  the  owners  and 
managers  of  the  works,  on  a  fairly  large  scale  the 
advantages  of  task  work  over  the  old-fashioned  day 


42      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

work  and  piece  work,  in  doing  a  very  elementary 
class  of  work. 

The  Bethlehem  Steel  Company  had  five  blast 
furnaces,  the  product  of  which  had  been  handled 
by  a  pig-iron  gang  for  many  years.  This  gang,  at 
this  time,  consisted  of  about  75  men.  The}'  were 
good,  average  pig-iron  handlers,  were  under  an 
excellent  foreman  who  himself  had  been  a  pig-iron 
handler,  and  the  work  was  done,  on  the  whole, 
about  as  fast  and  as  cheaply  as  it  was  anj-rs'here 
else  at  that  time. 

A  railroad  switch  was  rim  out  into  the  field,  right 
along  the  edge  of  the  piles  of  pig  iron.  An  inchned 
plank  was  placed  against  the  side  of  a  car,  and  each 
man  picked  up  from  his  pile  a  pig  of  iron  weighing 
about  92  pounds,  walked  up  the  inchned  plank  and 
dropped  it  on  the  end  of  the  car. 

We  found  that  this  gang  were  loading  on  the 
average  about  124-  long  tons  per  man  per  day. 
We  were  surprised  to  find,  after  studjing  the  matter, 
that  a  first-class  pig-iron  handler  ought  to  handle 
between  47  ^  and  48  long  tons  per  day,  instead  of 
12l  tons.  This  task  seemed  to  us  so  very  large 
that  we  were  obliged  to  go  over  our  work  several 
times  before  we  were  absolutely  sure  that  we  were 
right.  Once  we  were  sure,  however,  that  47  tons 
was  a  proper  day's  work  for  a  first-class  pig-iron 
handler,  the  task  which  faced  us  as  managers  under 
the  modern  scientific  plan  was  clearly  before  us. 
It  was  our  dut}^  to  see  that  the  80,000  tons  of  pig 

*  See  foot-note  at  foot  of  page  60. 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       43 

iron  was  loaded  on  to  the  cars  at  the  rate  of  47  tons 
per  man  per  day,  in  place  of  12^^  tons,  at  which  rate 
the  work  was  then  being  done.  And  it  was  further 
our  duty  to  see  that  this  work  was  done  without 
bringing  on  a  strike  among  the  men,  without  any 
quarrel  with  the  men,  and  to  see  that  the  men  were 
happier  and  better  contented  when  loading  at  the 
new  rate  of  47  tons  than  they  were  when  loading  at 
the  old  rate  of  12i  tons. 

Our  first  step  was  the  scientific  selection  of  the 
workman.  In  dealing  with  workmen  under  this 
type  of  management,  it  is  an  inflexible  rule  to  talk 
to  and  deal  with  only  one  man  at  a  time,  since  each 
workman  has  his  own  special  abilities  and  limita- 
tions, and  since  we  are  not  dealing  with  men  in 
masses,  but  are  trying  to  develop  each  individual 
man  to  his  highest  state  of  efiiciency  and  prosperity. 
Our  first  step  was  to  find  the  proper  workman  to 
begin  with.  We  therefore  carefully  watched  and 
studied  these  75  men  for  three  or  four  days,  at  the 
end  of  which  time  we  had  picked  out  four  men 
who  appeared  to  be  physically  able  to  handle 
pig  iron  at  the  rate  of  47  tons  per  day.  A  careful 
study  was  then  made  of  each  of  these  men.  We 
looked  up  their  history  as  far  back  as  practicable  and 
thorough  inquiries  were  made  as  to  the  character, 
habits,  and  the  ambition  of  each  of  them.  Finally 
we  selected  one  from  among  the  four  as  the  most 
hkely  man  to  start  with.  He  was  a  little  Pennsyl- 
vania Dutchman  who  had  been  observed  to  trot  back 
home  for  a  mile  or  so  after  his  work  in  the  evening, 


44      THE  PRIN'CIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

about  as  fresh  as  he  was  when  he  came  trotting  dowTi 
to  work  in  the  morning.  We  found  that  upon 
wages  of  31.15  a  day  he  had  succeeded  in  bming  a 
small  plot  of  ground,  and  that  he  was  engaged  in 
putting  up  the  walls  of  a  httle  house  for  himself 
in  the  morning  before  starting  to  work  and  at  night 
after  lea\Tng.  He  also  had  the  reputation  of  being 
exceedingly  ''close,"  that  is,  of  placing  a  ven^  high 
value  on  a  dollar.  As  one  man  whom  we  talked  to 
about  him  said,  ''A  penny  looks  about  the  size  of  a 
cart-wheel  to  him."     This  man  we  wiU  call  Schmidt. 

The  task  before  us,  then,  narrowed  itself  down  to 
getting  Schmidt  to  handle  47  tons  of  pig  iron  per 
day  and  making  him  glad  to  do  it.  This  was  done 
as  follows.  Schmidt  was  caUed  out  from  among  the 
gang  of  pig-iron  handlers  and  talked  to  somewhat 
in  this  way: 

''Schmidt,  are  you  a  high-priced  man?" 

"VeU,  I  don't  know  vat  j'ou  mean." 

"  Oh  yes.  you  do.  'What  I  want  to  know  is  whether 
you  are  a  high-priced  man  or  not." 

"VeU,  I  don't  know  vat  you  mean." 

"Oh,  come  now,  you  answer  my  questions.  What 
I  want  to  find  out  is  whether  you  are  a  high-priced 
man  or  one  of  these  cheap  fellows  here.  "^Miat  I 
want  to  find  out  is  whether  you  want  to  earn  SI. 85 
a  day  or  whether  you  are  satisfied  ^\-ith  SI.  15,  just 
the  same  as  aU  those  cheap  feUows  are  getting." 

"Did  I  vant  SI. 85  a  day?  Vas  dot  a  high-priced 
man?     VeU,  yes,  I  vas  a  high-priced  man." 

"Oh,  you're  aggravating  me.     Of  course  j^ou  want 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       45 

$1.85  a  day  —  every  one  wants  it!  You  know  per- 
fectly well  that  that  has  very  httle  to  do  ^-ith  your 
being  a  high-priced  man.  For  goodness'  sake  answer 
my  questions,  and  don't  waste  any  more  of  mj^  time. 
Kow^  come  over  here.  You  see  that  pile  of  pig 
h-on?" 

''Yes." 

"You  see  that  car?*' 

"Yes." 

"Well,  if  3^ou  are  a  high-priced  man,  j^ou  will 
load  that  pig  iron  on  that  car  to-morrow  for  $1.85. 
Now  do  wake  up  and  answer  my  question.  Tell 
me  whether  you  are  a  high-priced  man  or  not." 

"Veil  —  did  I  got  $1.85  for  loading  dot  pig  iron 
on  dot  car  to-morrow?" 

"Yes,  of  course  you  do,  and  you  get  SI. 85  for 
loading  a  pile  Uke  that  everj^  day  right  through  the 
year.  That  is  what  a  high-priced  man  does,  and 
you  know  it  just  as  well  as  I  do." 

"Veil,  dot's  all  right.  I  could  load  dot  pig  iron 
on  the  car  to-morrow  for  $1.85,  and  I  get  it  every  day, 
don't  I?" 

"Certainly  you  do  —  certainly  you  do." 

"VeU,  den,  I  vas  a  high-priced  man." 

"Now,  hold  on,  hold  on.  You  know  just  as  well 
as  I  do  that  a  high-priced  man  has  to  do  exactly  as 
he's  told  from  morning  till  night.  You  have  seen 
this  man  here  before,  haven't  you?" 

"No,  I  never  saw  him." 

*'Well,  if  you  are  a  high-priced  man,  you  will  do 
exactly  as  this  man  tells  you  to-morrow,  from  morn- 


d6      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

ing  till  night.  When  he  tells  you  to  pick  up  a  pig 
and  walk,  you  pick  it  up  and  you  walk,  and  when 
he  tells  you  to  sit  down  and  rest,  you  sit  down. 
You  do  that  right  straight  through  the  day.  And 
what's  more,  no  back  talk.  Now  a  high-priced 
man  does  just  what  he's  told  to  do,  and  no  back 
talk.  Do  you  understand  that?  When  this  man 
tells  you  to  walk,  you  walk;  when  he  tells  you  to 
sit  down,  you  sit  down,  and  you  don't  talk  back  at 
him.  Now  you  come  on  to  work  here  to-morrow 
morning  and  I'll  know  before  night  whether  you  are 
really  a  high-priced  man  or  not." 

This  seems  to  be  rather  rough  talk.  And  indeed 
it  would  be  if  apphed  to  an  educated  mechanic,  or 
even  an  intelligent  laborer.  With  a  man  of  the 
mentally  sluggish  type  of  Schmidt  it  is  appropriate 
and  not  unkind,  since  it  is  effective  in  fixing  his 
attention  on  the  high  wages  which  he  wants  and 
away  from  what,  if  it  were  called  to  his  attention, 
he  probably  would  consider  impossibly  hard  work. 

Wliat  would  Schmidt's  answer  be  if  he  were  talked 
to  in  a  manner  which  is  usual  under  the  manage- 
ment of  ''initiative  and  incentive"?  say,  as  follows: 

''Now,  Schmidt,  you  are  a  first-class  pig-iron 
handler  and  know  3^our  business  well.  You  have 
been  handling  at  the  rate  of  12 J  tons  per  day.  I 
have  given  considerable  study  to  handling  pig  iron, 
and  feel  sure  that  you  could  do  a  much  larger  day's 
work  than  you  have  been  doing.  Now  don't  you 
think  that  if  you  really  tried  you  could  handle  47 
tons  of  pig  iron  per  day,  instead  of  12|  tons?" 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT      47 

What  do  you  think  Schmidt's  answer  would  be 
to  this? 

Schmidt  started  to  work,  and  all  day  long,  and 
at  regular  intervals,  was  told  by  the  man  who  stood 
over  him  with  a  watch,  "Now  pick  up  a  pig  and 
walk.  Now  sit  dowTi  and  rest.  Now  walk  —  now 
rest,"  etc.  He  worked  when  he  was  told  to  work, 
and  rested  when  he  was  told  to  rest,  and  at  half- 
past  five  in  the  afternoon  had  his  474  tons  loaded 
on  the  car.  And  he  practically  never  failed  to  work 
at  this  pace  and  do  the  task  that  was  set  him  during 
the  three  years  that  the  writer  was  at  Bethlehem. 
And  throughout  this  time  he  averaged  a  little  more 
than  $1.85  per  day,  whereas  before  he  had  never 
received  over  $1.15  per  day,  which  was  the  ruling 
rate  of  wages  at  that  time  in  Bethlehem.  That 
is,  he  received  60  per  cent,  higher  wages  than  were 
paid  to  other  men  who  were  not  working  on  task 
work.  One  man  after  another  was  picked  out  and 
trained  to  handle  pig  iron  at  the  rate  of  47i  tons 
per  day  until  all  of  the  pig  iron  was  handled  at 
this  rate,  and  the  men  were  receiving  60  per  cent. 
more  wages  than  other  workmen  around  them. 

The  wTiter  has  given  above  a  brief  description  of 
three  of  the  four  elements  which  constitute  the 
essence  of  scientific  management:  first,  the  careful 
selection  of  the  workman,  and,  second  and  third, 
the  method  of  first  inducing  and  then  training  and 
helping  the  workman  to  work  according  to  the 
scientific  method.  Nothing  has  as  yet  been  said 
about  the  science  of  handling  pig  iron.     The  writer 


18      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

trusts,  however,  that  before  leaving  this  illustra- 
tion the  reader  will  be  thoroughly  convinced  that 
there  is  a  science  of  handling  pig  iron,  and  further 
that  this  science  amounts  to  so  much  that  the  man 
who  is  suited  to  handle  pig  iron  cannot  possibly 
understand  it,  nor  even  work  in  accordance  \\dth  the 
laws  of  this  science,  without  the  help  of  those  who 
are  over  him. 

The  writer  came  into  the  machine-shop  of  the 
Midvale  Steel  Company  in  1878,  after  having  served 
an  apprenticeship  as  a  pattern-maker  and  as  a 
machinist.  This  was  close  to  the  end  of  the  long 
period  of  depression  following  the  panic  of  1873, 
and  business  was  so  poor  that  it  was  impossible  for 
many  mechanics  to  get  work  at  their  trades.  For 
this  reason  he  was  obliged  to  start  as  a  day  laborer 
instead  of  working  as  a  mechanic.  Fortunately  for 
him,  soon  after  he  came  into  the  shop  the  clerk  of 
the  shop  was  found  stealing.  There  was  no  one  else 
available,  and  so,  having  more  education  [than  the 
other  laborers  (since  he  had  been  prepared  for  col- 
lege) he  was  given  the  position  of  clerk.  Shortly 
after  this  he  was  given  work  as  a  machinist  in  run- 
ning one  of  the  lathes,  and,  as  he  turned  out  rather 
more  work  than  other  machinists  were  doing  on 
similar  lathes,  after  several  months  was  made  gang- 
boss  over  the  lathes. 

Almost  all  of  the  work  of  this  shop  had  been  done 
on  piece  work  for  several  years.  As  was  usual 
then,  and  in  fact  as  is  still  usual  in  most  of  the  shops 
in  this  country,  the  shop  was  really  run  by  the  work- 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT      49 

men,  and  not  by  the  bosses.  The  workmen  together 
had  carefully  planned  just  how  fast  each  job  should 
be  done,  and  they  had  set  a  pace  for  each  machine 
throughout  the  shop,  which  was  limited  to  about 
one-third  of  a  good  day's  work.  Every  new  work- 
man who  came  into  the  shop  was  told  at  once  by 
the  other  men  exactly  how  much  of  each  kind  of 
work  he  was  to  do,  and  unless  he  obeyed  these  in- 
structions he  was  sure  before  long  to  be  driven  out 
of  the  place  by  the  men. 

As  soon  as  the  writer  was  made  gang-boss,  one 
after  another  of  the  men  came  to  him  and  talked 
somewhat  as  follows: 

''Now,  Fred,  we're  very  glad  to  see  that  you've 
been  made  gang-boss.  You  know  the  game  all  right, 
and  we're  sure  that  you're  not  likely  to  be  a  piece- 
work hog.  You  come  along  with  us,  and  every- 
thing will  be  all  right,  but  if  you  try  breaking  any 
of  these  rates  you  can  be  mighty  sure  that  we'll 
throw  you  over  the  fence." 

The  writer  told  them  plainly  that  he  was  now 
working  on  the  side  of  the  management,  and  that 
he  proposed  to  do  whatever  he  could  to  get  a  fair 
day's  work  out  of  the  lathes.  This  immediately 
started  a  war;  in  most  cases  a  friendly  war,  because 
the  men  who  were  under  him  were  his  personal 
friends,  but  none  the  less  a  war,  which  as  time 
went  on  grew  more  and  more  bitter.  The  writer 
used  every  expedient  to  make  them  do  a  fair  day's 
work,  such  as  discharging  or  lowering  the  wages  of 
the  more  stubborn  men  who  refused  to  make  any 


50      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

improvement,  and  such  as  lowering  the  piece-work 
price,  hiring  green  men,  and  personally  teaching  them 
how  to  do  the  work,  with  the  promise  from  them  that 
when  they  had  learned  how,  they  would  then  do  a 
fair  day's  work.  While  the  men  constantly  brought 
such  pressure  to  bear  (both  inside  and  outside  the 
works)  upon  all  those  who  started  to  increase  their 
output  that  they  were  finally  compelled  to  do  about 
as  the  rest  did,  or  else  quit.  No  one  who  has  not 
had  this  experience  can  have  an  idea  of  the  bitter- 
ness which  is  gradually  developed  in  such  a  struggle. 
In  a  war  of  this  kind  the  workmen  have  one  expe- 
dient which  is  usually  effective.  They  use  their 
ingenuity  to  contrive  various  ways  in  which  the 
machines  which  they  are  running  are  broken  or 
damaged  —  apparently  by  accident,  or  in  the  regular 
course  of  work  —  and  this  they  always  lay  at  the 
door  of  the  foreman,  who  has  forced  them  to  drive 
the  machine  so  hard  that  it  is  overstrained  and  is 
being  ruined.  And  there  are  few  foremen  indeed 
who  are  able  to  stand  up  against  the  combined  pres- 
sure of  all  of  the  men  in  the  shop.  In  this  case  the 
problem  was  complicated  by  the  fact  that  the  shop 
ran  both  day  and  night. 

The  writer  had  two  advantages,  however,  which 
are  not  possessed  by  the  ordinary  foreman,  and  these 
came,  curiously  enough,  from  the  fact  that  he  was 
not  the  son  of  a  working  man. 

First,  owing  to  the  fact  that  he  happened  not  to 
be  of  working  parents,  the  owners  of  the  company 
beUeved  that  he  had  the  interest  of  the  works  more 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       51 

at  heart  than  the  other  workmen,  and  they  therefore 
had  more  confidence  in  his  word  than  they  did  in 
that  of  the  machinists  who  were  under  him.  So 
that,  when  the  machinists  reported  to  the  Superin- 
tendent that  the  machines  were  being  smashed  up 
because  an  incompetent  foreman  was  overstraining 
them,  the  Superintendent  accepted  the  word  of  the 
writer  when  he  said  that  these  men  were  dehberately 
breaking  their  machines  as  a  part  of  the  piece-work 
war  which  was  going  on,  and  he  also  allowed  the 
writer  to  make  the  only  effective  answer  to  this 
Vandalism  on  the  part  of  the  men,  namely:  ''There 
will  be  no  more  accidents  to  the  machines  in  this 
shop.  If  any  part  of  a  machine  is  broken  the  man  in 
charge  of  it  must  pay  at  least  a  part  of  the  cost  of 
its  repair,  and  the  fines  collected  in  this  way  will  all 
be  handed  over  to  the  mutual  beneficial  association 
to  help  care  for  sick  workmen."  This  soon  stopped 
the  wilful  breaking  of  machines. 

Second.  If  the  writer  had  been  one  of  the  work- 
men, and  had  Hved  where  they  lived,  they  would 
have  brought  such  social  pressure  to  bear  upon  him 
that  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  have  stood  out 
against  them.  He  would  have  been  called  ''scab" 
and  other  foul  names  every  time  he  appeared  on 
the  street,  his  wife  would  have  been  abused,  and  his 
children  would  have  been  stoned.  Once  or  twice 
he  was  begged  by  some  of  his  friends  among  the 
workmen  not  to  walk  home,  about  two  and  a  half 
miles  along  the  lonely  path  by  the  side  of  the  rail- 
way.   He  was  told  that  if  he  continued  to  do  this 


52      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

it  woiild  be  at  the  risk  of  his  hfe.  In  all  such 
cases,  however,  a  display  of  timidity  is  apt  to  increase 
rather  than  diminish  the  risk,  so  the  writer  told 
these  men  to  say  to  the  other  men  in  the  shop  that 
he  proposed  to  walk  home  every  night  right  up  that 
railway  track;  that  he  never  had  carried  and  never 
would  carry  any  weapon  of  any  kind,  and  that  they 
could  shoot  and  be  d . 

After  about  three  years  of  this  kind  of  struggling, 
the  output  of  the  machines  had  been  materially 
increased,  in  many  cases  doubled,  and  as  a  result 
the  writer  had  been  promoted  from  one  gang-boss- 
ship  to  another  until  he  became  foreman  of  the 
shop.  For  any  right-minded  man,  however,  this 
success  is  in  no  sense  a  recompense  for  the  bitter 
relations  which  he  is  forced  to  maintain  with  all  of 
those  around  him.  Life  which  is  one  continuous 
struggle  with  other  men  is  hardly  worth  living. 
His  workman  friends  came  to  him  continually  and 
asked  him,  in  a  personal,  friendly  way,  whether  he 
would  advise  them,  for  their  own.  best  interest,  to 
turn  out  more  work.  And,  as  a  truthful  man,  he 
had  to  tell  them  that  if  he  were  in  their  place  he 
would  fight  against  turning  out  any  more  work, 
just  as  they  were  doing,  because  under  the  piece- 
work system  they  would  be  allowed  to  earn  no  more 
wages  than  they  had  been  earning,  and  yet  they 
would  be  made  to  work  harder. 

Soon  after  being  made  foreman,  therefore,  he 
decided  to  make  a  determined  effort  to  in  some  way 
change  the  system  of  management,  so  that  the  inter- 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT      53 

ests  of  the  workmen  and  the  management  should 
become  the  same,  instead  of  antagonistic.  This 
resulted,  some  three  years  later,  in  the  starting  of 
the  type  of  management  which  is  described  in  papers 
presented  to  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical 
Engineers  entitled  ^'A  Piece-Rate  System"  and 
''Shop  Management." 

In  preparation  for  this  system  the  writer  realized 
that  the  greatest  obstacle  to  harmonious  cooperation 
between  the  workmen  and  the  management  lay  in 
the  ignorance  of  the  management  as  to  what  really 
constitutes  a  proper  day's  work  for  a  workman.  He 
fully  realized  that,  although  he  was  foreman  of  the 
shop,  the  combined  knowledge  and  skill  of  the  work- 
men who  were  under  him  was  certainly  ten  times  as 
great  as  his  own.  He  therefore  obtained  the  per- 
mission of  Mr.  William  Sellers,  who  was  at  that  time 
the  President  of  the  Midvale  Steel  Company,  to 
spend  some  money  in  a  careful,  scientific  study  of 
the  time  required  to  do  various  kinds  of  work. 

Mr.  Sellers  allowed  this  more  as  a  reward  for 
having,  to  a  certain  extent,  ''made  good"  as  foreman 
of  the  shop  in  getting  more  work  out  of  the  men, 
than  for  any  other  reason.  He  stated,  however, 
that  he  did  not  believe  that  any  scientific  study  of 
this  sort  would  give  results  of  much  value. 

Among  several  investigations  which  were  under- 
taken at  this  time,  one  was  an  attempt  to  find  some 
rule,  or  law,  which  would  enable  a  foreman  to  know 
in  advance  how  much  of  any  kind  of  heavy  laboring 
work  a  man  who  was  well  suited  to  his  job  ought 


54      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

to  do  in  a  day;  that  is,  to  study  the  tiring  effect 
of  heavy  labor  upon  a  first-class  man.  Our  first 
step  was  to  employ  a  young  college  graduate  to 
look  up  all  that  had  been  written  on  the  subject 
in  English,  German,  and  French.  Two  classes  of 
experiments  had  been  made:  one  by  physiologists 
who  were  studying  the  endurance  of  the  human 
animal,  and  the  other  by  engineers  who  wished  to 
determine  what  fraction  of  a  horse-power  a  man- 
power was.  These  experiments  had  been  made 
largely  upon  men  who  were  lifting  loads  by  means  of 
turning  the  crank  of  a  winch  from  which  weights 
were  suspended,  and  others  who  were  engaged  in 
walking,  running,  and  lifting  weights  in  various 
ways.  However,  the  records  of  these  investigations 
were  so  meager  that  no  law  of  any  value  could  be 
deduced  from  them.  We  therefore  started  a  series 
of  experiments  of  our  own. 

Two  first-class  laborers  were  selected,  men  who 
had  proved  themselves  to  be  physically  powerful 
and  who  were  also  good  steady  workers.  These  men 
were  paid  double  wages  during  the  experiments,  and 
were  told  that  they  must  work  to  the  best  of  their 
ability  at  all  times,  and  that  we  should  make  certain 
tests  with  them  from  time  to  time  to  find  whether 
they  were  "soldiering"  or  not,  and  that  the  moment 
either  one  of  them  started  to  try  to  deceive  us 
he  would  be  discharged.  They  worked  to  the  best 
of  their  ability  throughout  the  time  that  they  were 
being  observed. 

Now  it  must  be  clearly  understood  that  in  these 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       55 

experiments  we  were  not  trying  to  find  the  maxi- 
mum work  that  a  man  could  do  on  a  short  spurt  or 
for  a  few  days,  but  that  our  endeavor  was  to  learn 
what  really  constituted  a  full  day's  work  for  a  first- 
class  man;  the  best  day's  work  that  a  man  could 
properly  do,  year  in  and  year  out,  and  still  thrive 
under.  These  men  were  given  all  kinds  of  tasks, 
which  were  carried  out  each  day  under  the  close 
observation  of  the  yoimg  college  man  who  was  con- 
ducting the  experiments,  and  who  at  the  same  time 
noted  with  a  stop-watch  the  proper  time  for  all  of 
the  motions  that  were  made  by  the  men.  Every 
element  in  any  way  connected  with  the  work  which 
we  beheved  could  have  a  bearing  on  the  result  was 
carefully  studied  and  recorded.  Wliat  we  hoped 
ultimately  to  determine  was  what  fraction  of  a 
horse-power  a  man  was  able  to  exert,  that  is,  how 
many  foot-pounds  of  work  a  man  could  do  in  a  day. 
After  completing  this  series  of  experiments,  there- 
fore, each  man's  work  for  each  day  was  translated 
into  foot-pounds  of  energy,  and  to  our  surprise  we 
found  that  there  was  no  constant  or  uniform  relation 
between  the  foot-pounds  of  energy  which  the  man 
exerted  during  a  day  and  the  tiring  effect  of  his  work. 
On  some  kinds  of  work  the  man  would  be  tired  out 
when  doing  perhaps  not  more  than  one-eighth  of  a 
horse-power,  while  in  others  he  would  be  tired  to  no 
greater  extent  by  doing  half  a  horse-power  of  work. 
We  failed,  therefore,  to  find  any  law  which  was  an 
accurate  guide  to  the  maximum  day's  work  for  a 
first-class  workman. 


56      THE  PRI^XIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

A  large  amount  of  \ery  valuable  data  had  been 
obtained,  which  enabled  us  to  know,  for  many 
kinds  of  labor,  what  was  a  proper  day's  work.  It 
did  not  seem  wise,  however,  at  this  time  to  spend 
any  more  money  in  trj'ing  to  find  the  exact  law 
which  we  were  after.  Some  years  later,  when  mere 
money  was  available  for  this  purpose,  a  second  senes 
of  experiments  was  made,  similar  to  the  first,  but 
somewhat  more  thorough.  This,  however,  resulted 
as  the  first  experiments,  in  obtaining  valuable  infor- 
mation but  not  in  the  development  of  a  law.  Again, 
some  years  later,  a  third  series  of  experiments  was 
made,  and  this  time  no  trouble  was  spared  in  our 
endeavor  to  make  the  work  thorough.  Every  minute 
element  which  could  in  any  way  affect  the  problem 
w^as  carefully  noted  and  studied,  and  two  college  men 
devoted  about  three  months  to  the  experiments. 
Aitev  this  data  was  again  translated  into  foot-pounds 
of  energy  exerted  for  each  man  each  day,  it  became 
perfectly  clear  that  there  is  no  direct  relation  between 
the  horse-power  which  a  man  exerts  (that  is,  his 
foot-pounds  of  energy  per  day)  and  the  tiring  effect 
of  the  work  on  the  man.  The  "^Titer,  however,  was 
quite  as  firmly  convinced  as  ever  that  some  definite, 
clear-cut  law  existed  as  to  what  constitutes  a  full 
day's  work  for  a  first-class  laborer,  and  our  data 
had  been  so  carefully  collected  and  recorded  that 
he  felt  sure  that  the  necessarj^  information  was 
included  somewhere  in  the  records.  The  problem 
of  developing  this  law  from  the  accumulated  facts 
was  therefore  handed  over  to  Air.  Carl  G.  Barth, 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       57 

who  is  a  better  mathematician  than  any  of  the  rest 
of  us,  and  we  decided  to  investigate  the  problem 
in  a  new  way,  by  graphically  representing  each 
element  of  the  work  through  plotting  curves,  which 
should  give  us,  as  it  were,  a  bird's-eye  view  of  every 
element.  In  a  comparatively  short  time  Mr.  Earth 
had  discovered  the  law  governing  the  tiring  effect  of 
hea^'y  labor  on  a  first-class  man.  And  it  is  so  simple 
in  its  nature  that  it  is  truly  remarkable  that  it 
should  not  have  been  discovered  and  clearly  under- 
stood 3'ears  before.  The  law  which  was  developed 
is  as  follows: 

The  law  is  confined  to  that  class  of  work  in  which 
the  limit  of  a  man's  capacit}^  is  reached  because  he 
is  tired  out.  It  is  the  law  of  heavj^  laboring,  cor- 
responding to  the  work  of  the  cart  horse,  rather  than 
that  of  the  trotter.  Practically  all  such  work  con- 
sists of  a  heavj"  pull  or  a  push  on  the  man's  arms, 
that  is,  the  man's  strength  is  exerted  b}^  either  lift- 
ing or  pushing  something  which  he  grasps  in  his 
hands.  And  the  law  is  that  for  each  given  pull 
or  push  on  the  man's  arms  it  is  possible  for  the  work- 
man to  be  under  load  for  only  a  definite  percentage 
of  the  day.  For  example,  when  pig  iron  is  being 
handled  (each  pig  weighing  92  pounds),  a  first- 
class  workman  can  only  be  under  load  43  per  cent, 
of  the  day.  He  must  be  entirely  free  from  load 
during  57  per  cent,  of  the  day.  And  as  the  load 
becomes  lighter,  the  percentage  of  the  day  under 
which  the  man  can  remain  under  load  increases. 
So   that,   if   the   workman   is   handling  a   half -pig. 


58      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

weighing  46  pounds,  he  can  then  be  under  load 
58  per  cent,  of  the  day,  and  only  has  to  rest  during 
42  per  cent.  As  the  weight  grows  hghter  the  man  can 
remain  under  load  during  a  larger  and  larger  per- 
centage of  the  day,  until  finally  a  load  is  reached 
which  he  can  carry  in  his  hands  all  day  long  without 
being  tired  out.  ^^^len  that  point  has  been  arrived 
at  this  law  ceases  to  be  useful  as  a  guide  to  a 
laborer's  endurance,  and  some  other  law  must  be 
found  which  indicates  the  man's  capacity  for  work. 

When  a  laborer  is  carrying  a  piece  of  pig  iron 
weighing  92  pounds  in  his  hands,  it  tires  him  about 
as  much  to  stand  still  under  the  load  as  it  does  to 
walk  with  it,  since  his  arm  muscles  are  under  the 
same  severe  tension  whether  he  is  mo^dng  or  not. 
A  man,  however,  who  stands  still  under  a  load  is 
exerting  no  horse-powder  whatever,  and  this  accounts 
for  the  fact  that  no  constant  relation  could  be  traced 
in  various  kinds  of  heavy  laboring  work  between 
the  foot-pounds  of  energy  exerted  and  the  tiring 
effect  of  the  work  on  the  man.  It  will  also  be  clear 
that  in  all  work  of  this  kind  it  is  necessary  for  the 
arms  of  the  workman  to  be  completely  free  from 
load  (that  is,  for  the  workman  to  rest)  at  frequent 
intervals.  Throughout  the  time  that  the  man  is 
under  a  heavy  load  the  tissues  of  his  arm  muscles 
are  in  process  of  degeneration,  and  frequent  periods 
of  rest  are  required  in  order  that  the  blood  may 
have  a  chance  to  restore  these  tissues  to  their  normal 
condition. 

To  return   now  to  our  pig-iron  handlers  at   the 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       59 

Bethlehem  Steel  Company.  If  Schmidt  had  been 
allowed  to  attack  the  pile  of  47  tons  of  pig  iron 
without  the  guidance  or  direction  of  a  man  who 
understood  the  art,  or  science,  of  handling  pig  iron, 
in  his  desire  to  earn  his  high  wages  he  would  probably 
have  tired  himself  out  by  11  or  12  o'clock  in  the  day. 
He  would  have  kept  so  steadily  at  work  that  his 
muscles  would  not  have  had  the  proper  periods  of 
rest  absolutely  needed  for  recuperation,  and  he 
would  have  been  completely  exhausted  early  in 
the  day.  By  having  a  man,  however,  w^ho  under- 
stood this  law,  stand  over  him  and  direct  his  work, 
day  after  day,  until  he  acquired  the  habit  of  resting 
at  proper  intervals,  he  was  able  to  work  at  an  even 
gait  all  day  long  without  unduly  tiring  himself. 

Now  one  of  the  very  first  requirements  for  a  man 
who  is  fit  to  handle  pig  iron  as  a  regular  occupation 
is  that  he  shall  be  so  stupid  and  so  phlegmatic  that 
he  more  nearly  resembles  in  his  mental  make-up 
the  ox  than  any  other  type.  The  man  who  is 
mentally  alert  and  intelligent  is  for  this  very  reason 
entirely  unsuited  to  what  would,  for  him,  be  the 
grinding  monotony  of  work  of  this  character.  There- 
fore the  workman  who  is  best  suited  to  handling 
pig  iron  is  unable  to  understand  the  real  science 
of  doing  this  class  of  work.  He  is  so  stupid  that  the 
word  "percentage"  has  no  meaning  to  him,  and  he 
must  consequently  be  trained  by  a  man  more  intel- 
ligent than  himself  into  the  habit  of  working  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  this  science  before  he 
can  be  successful. 


60      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

The  writer  trusts  that  it  is  now  clear  that  even 
in  the  case  of  the  most  elementary  form  of  labor 
that  is  known,  there  is  a  science,  and  that  when  the 
man  best  suited  to  this  class  of  work  has  been  care- 
fully selected,  when  the  science  of  doing  the  work 
has  been  developed,  and  when  the  carefully  selected 
man  has  been  trained  to  work  in  accordance  with 
this  science,  the  results  obtained  must  of  necessity 
be  overwhelmingly  greater  than  those  which  are 
possible  under  the  plan  of  '' initiative  and  incentive." 

Let  us,  however,  again  turn  to  the  case  of  these 
pig-iron  handlers,  and  see  whether,  under  the  ordinary 
type  of  management,  it  would  not  have  been  possible 
to  obtain  practically  the  same  results. 

The  writer  has  put  the  problem  before  many 
good  managers,  and  asked  them  whether,  under 
premium  work,  piece  work,  or  any  of  the  ordinary 
plans  of  management,  they  would  be  likely  even  to 
approximate  47  tons  ^  per  man  per  day,  and  not  a 

1  Many  people  have  questioned  the  accuracy  of  the  statement  that 
first-class  workmen  can  load  47i  tons  of  pig  iron  from  the  ground  on  to  a 
car  in  a  day.  For  those  who  are  skeptical,  therefore,  the  following  data 
relating  to  this  work  are  given: 

First.  That  our  experiments  indicated  the  existence  of  the  following 
law:  that  a  first-class  laborer,  suited  to  such  work  as  handhng  pig  iron, 
could  be  under  load  only  42  per  cent,  of  the  day  and  must  be  free  from 
load  58  per  cent,  of  the  day. 

Second.  That  a  man  in  loading  pig  iron  from  piles  placed  on  the  ground 
in  an  open  field  on  to  a  car  which  stood  on  a  track  adjoining  these  piles, 
ought  to  handle  (and  that  they  did  handle  regularly)  47J  long  tons 
(2240  pounds  per  ton)  per  day. 

That  the  price  paid  for  loading  this  pig  iron  was  Sto  cents  per  ton,  and 
that  the  men  working  at  it  averaged  $1.85  per  day,  whereas,  in  the  past, 
they  had  been  paid  only  SI.  15  per  day. 

In  addition  to  these  facts,  the  following  are  given: 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       61 

man  has  suggested  that  an  output  of  over  18  to 
25  tons  could  be  attained  by  any  of  the  ordinary 
expedients.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Bethle- 
hem men  were  loading  only  12i  tons  per  man. 

To  go  into  the  matter  in  more  detail,  however: 
As  to  the  scientific  selection  of  the  men,  it  is  a  fact 
that  in  this  gang  of  75  pig-iron  handlers  only  about 
one  man  in  eight  was  physically  capable  of  handling 
474-  tons  per  day.  With  the  very  best  of  intentions, 
the  other  seven  out  of  eight  men  were  physically 
unable  to  work  at  this  pace.  Now  the  one  man  in 
eight  who  was  able  to  do  this  w^ork  was  in  no  sense 
superior  to  the  other  men  who  were  working  on  the 

47i  long  tons  equal  106,400  pounds  of  pig  iron  per  day. 

At  92  pounds  per  pig,  equals  1156  pigs  per  day. 

42  per  cent,  of  a  day  under  load  equals  600  minutes;  multiplied  by 
0.42  equals  252  minutes  under  load. 

252  minutes  di\'ided  by  1156  pigs  equals  0.22  minutes  per  pig  under 
load. 

A  pig-iron  handler  walks  on  the  level  at  the  rate  of  one  foot  in  0.006 
minutes.  The  average  distance  of  the  piles  of  pig  iron  from  the  car  was 
36  feet.  It  is  a  fact,  however,  that  many  of  the  pig-iron  handlers  ran 
with  their  pig  as  soon  as  they  reached  the  inchned  plank.  Many  of  them 
also  would  run  down  the  plank  after  loading  the  car.  So  that  when  the 
actual  loading  went  on,  many  of  them  moved  at  a  faster  rate  than  is  indi- 
cated by  the  above  figures.  Practically  the  men  were  made  to  take  a  rest, 
generally  by  sitting  down,  after  loading  ten  to  twenty  pigs.  This  rest  was 
in  addition  to  the  time  which  it  took  them  to  walk  back  from  the  car 
to  the  pile.  It  is  likely  that  many  of  those  who  are  skeptical  about  the 
possibiUty  of  loading  this  amount  of  pig  iron  do  not  reahze  that  while 
these  men  were  walking  back  they  were  entirely  free  from  load,  and  that 
therefore  their  muscles  had,  during  that  time,  the  opportimity  for  recupera- 
tion. It  will  be  noted  that  with  an  average  distance  of  36  feet  of  the  pig 
iron  from  the  car,  these  men  walked  about  eight  miles  imder  load  each 
day  and  eight  miles  free  from  load. 

If  any  one  who  is  interested  in  these  figures  will  multiply  them  and 
divide  them,  one  into  the  other,  in  various  ways,  he  will  find  that  all  of 
the  facta  stated  check  up  exactly. 


62      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

gang.  He  merely  happened  to  be  a  man  of  the  type 
of  the  ox,  —  no  rare  specimen  of  humanity',  difficult 
to  find  and  therefore  very  highly  prized.  On  the  con- 
trary-, he  was  a  man  so  stupid  that  he  was  unfitted 
to  do  most  kinds  of  laboring  work,  even.  The 
selection  of  the  man,  then,  does  not  involve  finding 
some  extraordinary  individual,  but  merely  picking 
out  from  among  very  ordinary'  men  the  few  who  are 
especially  suited  to  this  tj'pe  of  work.  Although 
in  this  particular  gang  only  one  man  in  eight  was 
suited  to  doing  the  work,  we  had  not  the  shghtest 
difficulty  in  getting  all  the  men  who  were  needed — 
some  of  them  from  inside  of  the  works  and  others 
from  the  neighboring  country  —  who  were  exactly 
suited  to  the  job. 

Under  the  management  of  "initiative  and  incen- 
tive'' the  attitude  of  the  management  is  that  of 
''putting  the  work  up  to  the  workmen."'  "Wliat 
hkelihood  would  there  be,  then,  under  the  old  t\-pe 
of  management,  of  these  men  properly  selecting 
themselves  for  pig-iron  handling?  Would  they  be 
hkely  to  get  rid  of  seven  men  out  of  eight  from  their 
0"^Ti  gang  and  retain  only  the  eighth  man?  No! 
And  no  expedient  could  be  devised  which  would 
make  these  men  properly  select  themselves.  Even 
if  they  fully  realized  the  necessity  of  doing  so  in  order 
to  obtain  high  wages  (and  they  are  not  sufficiently 
intelligent  properly  to  grasp  this  necessity),  the  fact 
that  their  friends  or  their  brothers  who  were  working 
right  alongside  of  them  would  temporarily  be  thro'^Ti 
out  of  a  job  because  they  were  not  suited  to  this 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       63 

kind  of  work  would  entirely  prevent  them  from 
properly  selecting  themselves,  that  is,  from  removing 
the  seven  out  of  eight  men  on  the  gang  who  were 
unsuited  to  pig-iron  handling. 

As  to  the  possibility,  under  the  old  type  of  manage- 
ment, of  inducing  these  pig-iron  handlers  (after 
they  had  been  properly  selected)  to  work  in  accord- 
ance with  the  science  of  doing  hea\^  laboring,  namely, 
having  proper  scientifically  determined  periods  of 
rest  in  close  sequence  to  periods  of  work.  As  has 
been  indicated  before,  the  essential  idea  of  the 
ordinary  types  of  management  is  that  each  workman 
has  become  more  skilled  in  his  own  trade  than  it 
is  possible  for  any  one  in  the  management  to  be,  and 
that,  therefore,  the  details  of  how  the  work  shall 
best  be  done  must  be  left  to  him.  The  idea,  then, 
of  taking  one  man  after  another  and  training  him 
under  a  competent  teacher  into  new  working  habits 
until  he  continually  and  habitually  works  in  accord- 
ance with  scientific  laws,  which  have  been  developed 
by  some  one  else,  is  directly  antagonistic  to  the  old 
idea  that  each  workman  can  best  regulate  his  own 
way  of  doing  the  work.  And  besides  this,  the  man 
suited  to  handling  pig  iron  is  too  stupid  properly  to 
train  himself.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  with  the 
ordinary  types  of  management  the  development  of 
scientific  knowledge  to  replace  rule  of  thumb,  the 
scientific  selection  of  the  men,  and  inducing  the  men 
to  work  in  accordance  with  these  scientific  principles 
are  entirely  out  of  the  question.  And  this  because 
the  philosophy  of  the  old  management  puts  the  entire 


64      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

responsibility  upon  the  workmen,  while  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  new  places  a  great  part  of  it  upon  the 
management. 

With  most  readers  great  sympathy  wall  be  aroused 
because  seven  out  of  eight  of  these  pig-iron  handlers 
were  thrown  out  of  a  job.  This  sympathy  is  entirely 
wasted,  because  almost  all  of  them  were  immedi- 
ately given  other  jobs  with  the  Bethlehem  Steel 
Company.  And  indeed  it  Should  be  understood 
that  the  removal  of  these  men  from  pig-iron  handling, 
for  which  they  were  unfit,  was  really  a  kindness  to 
themselves,  because  it  was  the  first  step  toward 
finding  them  work  for  which  they  were  peculiarly 
fitted,  and  at  which,  after  receiving  proper  training, 
they  could  permanently  and  legitimately  earn  higher 
wages. 

Although  the  reader  may  be  convinced  that  there 
is  a  certain  science  back  of  the  handling  of  pig  iron, 
still  it  is  more  than  likely  that  he  is  still  skeptical 
as  to  the  existence  of  a  science  for  doing  other 
kinds  of  laboring.  One  of  the  important  objects  of 
this  paper  is  to  convince  its  readers  that  every  single 
act  of  every  workman  can  be  reduced  to  a  science. 
With  the  hope  of  fully  convincing  the  reader  of  this 
fact,  therefore,  the  writer  proposes  to  give  several 
more  simple  illustrations  from  among  the  thousands 
which  are  at  hand. 

For  example,  the  average  man  would  question 
whether  there  is  much  of  any  science  in  the  work 
of  shoveling.  Yet  there  is  but  little  doubt,  if  any 
intelligent  reader  of  this  paper  were  dehberately  to 


THE  PRINCIPLES   OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT       65 

set  out  to  find  what  ma}^  be  called  the  foundation 
of  the  science  of  shoveling,  that  \sith  perhaps  15 
to  20  hours  of  thought  and  analysis  he  would  be 
almost  sure  to  have  arrived  at  the  essence  of  this 
science.  On  the  other  hand,  so  completely  are  the 
rule-of-thumb  ideas  still  dominant  that  the  writer 
has  never  met  a  single  shovel  contractor  to  whom 
it  had  ever  even  occurred  that  there  was  such  a  thing 
as  the  science  of  shoveling.  This  science  is  so 
elementary  as  to  be  almost  self-evident. 

For  a  first-class  shoveler  there  is  a  given  shovel 
load  at  which  he  '^ill  do  his  biggest  day's  work. 
What  is  this  shovel  load?  Will  a  first-class  man  do 
more  work  per  day  with  a  shovel  load  of  5  pounds, 
10  pounds,  15  pounds,  20,  25,  30,  or  40  pounds? 
Now  this  is  a  question  which  can  be  answered  only 
through  carefully  made  experiments.  By  first  select- 
ing two  or  three  first-class  shovelers,  and  paying 
them  extra  wages  for  doing  trustworthy  work,  and 
then  graduall}'  var}4ng  the  shovel  load  and  ha\dng 
all  the  conditions  accompanpng  the  work  carefully 
obser\'ed  for  several  weeks  by  men  who  were  used 
to  experimenting,  it  was  found  that  a  first-class  man 
would  do  his  biggest  day's  work  with  a  shovel  load 
of  about  21  pounds.  For  instance,  that  this  man 
would  shovel  a  larger  tonnage  per  day  with  a  21- 
pound  load  than  with  a  24-pound  load  or  than  with 
an  18-pound  load  on  his  shovel.  It  is,  of  course, 
evident  that  no  shoveler  can  alwaj^s  take  a  load  of 
exactly  21  pounds  on  his  shovel,  but  nevertheless, 
although  his  load  may  vsLvy  3  or  4  pounds  one  way 


66      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

or  the  other,  either  below  or  above  the  21  pounds, 
he  will  do  his  biggest  day's  work  when  his  average 
for  the  day  is  about  21  pounds. 

The  writer  does  not  wish  it  to  be  understood  that 
this  is  the  whole  of  the  art  or  science  of  shoveling. 
There  are  many  other  elements,  which  together 
go  to  make  up  this  science.  But  he  wishes  to 
indicate  the  important  effect  which  this  one  piece 
of  scientific  knowledge  has  upon  the  work  of 
shoveling. 

At  the  works  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company, 
for  example,  as  a  result  of  this  law,  instead  of  allow- 
ing each  shoveler  to  select  and  own  his  own  shovel, 
it  became  necessary  to  provide  some  8  to  10  different 
kinds  of  shovels,  etc.,  each  one  appropriate  to 
handling  a  given  type  of  material;  not  only  so  as  to 
enable  the  men  to  handle  an  average  load  of  21 
pounds,  but  also  to  adapt  the  shovel  to  several 
other  requirements  which  become  perfectly  evident 
when  this  work  is  studied  as  a  science.  A  large 
shovel  tool  room  was  built,  in  which  were  stored 
not  only  shovels  but  carefully  designed  and  standard- 
ized labor  implements  of  all  kinds,  such  as  picks, 
crowbars,  etc.  This  made  it  possible  to  issue  to 
each  workman  a  shovel  which  would  hold  a  load 
of  21  pounds  of  whatever  class  of  material  they  were 
to  handle :  a  small  shovel  for  ore,  say,  or  a  large  one 
for  ashes.  Iron  ore  is  one  of  the  heavy  materials 
which  are  handled  in  a  works  of  this  kind,  and  rice 
coal,  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  is  so  slippery  on  the 
shovel,  is  one  of  the  lightest  materials.     And  it  was 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       67 

found  on  studying  the  rule-of-thumb  plan  at  the 
Bethlehem  Steel  Company,  where  each  shoveler 
owned  his  own  shovel,  that  he  would  frequently 
go  from  shoveling  ore,  with  a  load  of  about  30  pounds 
per  shovel,  to  handling  rice  coal,  with  a  load  on 
the  same  shovel  of  less  than  4  pounds.  In  the  one 
case,  he  was  so  overloaded  that  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  do  a  full  day's  work,  and  in  the  other  case  he 
was  so  ridiculously  underloaded  that  it  was  manifestly 
impossible  to  even  approximate  a  day's  work. 

Briefly  to  illustrate  some  of  the  other  elements 
which  go  to  make  up  the  science  of  shoveling, 
thousands  of  stop-watch  observations  were  made  to 
study  just  how  quickly  a  laborer,  provided  in  each 
case  with  the  proper  type  of  shovel,  can  push  his 
shovel  into  the  pile  of  materials  and  then  draw  it 
out  properly  loaded.  These  observations  were  made 
first  when  pushing  the  shovel  into  the  body  of  the 
pile.  Next  when  shoveling  on  a  dirt  bottom,  that 
is,  at  the  outside  edge  of  the  pile,  and  next  with  a 
wooden  bottom,  and  finally  with  an  iron  bottom. 
Again  a  similar  accurate  time  study  was  made  of 
the  time  required  to  swing  the  shovel  backward  and 
then  throw  the  load  for  a  given  horizontal  distance, 
accompanied  by  a  given  height.  This  time  study 
was  made  for  various  combinations  of  distance  and 
height.  With  data  of  this  sort  before  him,  coupled 
with  the  law  of  endurance  described  in  the  case  of 
the  pig-iron  handlers,  it  is  evident  that  the  man  who 
is  directing  shovelers  can  first  teach  them  the  exact 
methods  w^hich  should   be  employed  to  use  their 


68      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

strength  to  the  very  best  advantage,  and  can  then 
assign  them  daily  tasks  which  are  so  just  that 
the  workman  can  each  day  be  sure  of  earning  the 
large  bonus  which  is  paid  whenever  he  successfully 
performs  this  task. 

There  were  about  600  shovelers  and  laborers  of 
this  general  class  in  the  yard  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel 
Company  at  this  time.  These  men  were  scattered 
in  their  work  over  a  yard  which  was,  roughly,  about 
two  miles  long  and  half  a  mile  wide.  In  order  that 
each  workman  should  be  given  his  proper  implement 
and  his  proper  instructions  for  doing  each  new  job, 
it  was  necessary  to  establish  a  detailed  system  for 
directing  men  in  their  work,  in  place  of  the  old  plan 
of  handling  them  in  large  groups,  or  gangs,  under  a 
few  yard  foremen.  As  each  workman  came  into 
the  works  in  the  morning,  he  took  out  of  his  own 
special  pigeonhole,  with  his  number  on  the  outside, 
two  pieces  of  paper,  one  of  which  stated  just  what 
implements  he  was  to  get  from  the  tool  room  and 
where  he  was  to  start  to  work,  and  the  second  of 
which  gave  the  history  of  his  previous  day's  work; 
that  is,  a  statement  of  the  work  which  he  had  done, 
how  much  he  had  earned  the  day  before,  etc.  Many 
of  these  men  were  foreigners  and  unable  to  read  and 
write,  but  they  all  knew  at  a  glance  the  essence  of 
this  report,  because  yellow  paper  showed  the  man 
that  he  had  failed  to  do  his  full  task  the  day  before, 
and  informed  him  that  he  had  not  earned  as  much 
as  $1.85  a  day,  and  that  none  but  high-priced  men 
would  be  allowed  to  stay  permanently  with  this 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       69 

gang.  The  hope  was  further  expressed  that  he  would 
earn  his  full  wages  on  the  following  day.  So  that 
whenever  the  men  received  white  slips  they  knew 
that  everything  was  all  right,  and  whenever  they 
received  yellow  slips  they  realized  that  they  must  do 
better  or  they  would  be  shifted  to  some  other  class 
of  work. 

Dealing  with  every  workman  as  a  separate  indi- 
vidual in  this  way  involved  the  building  of  a  labor 
office  for  the  superintendent  and  clerks  who  were 
in  charge  of  this  section  of  the  work.  In  this  office 
every  laborer's  work  was  planned  out  well  in  advance, 
and  the  workmen  were  all  moved  from  place  to 
place  by  the  clerks  with  elaborate  diagrams  or  maps 
of  the  yard  before  them,  very  much  as  chessmen  are 
moved  on  a  chess-board,  a  telephone  and  messenger 
system  having  been  installed  for  this  purpose.  In 
this  way  a  large  amount  of  the  time  lost  through  hav- 
ing too  many  men  in  one  place  and  too  few  in  an- 
other, and  through  waiting  between  jobs,  was  entirely 
eliminated.  Under  the  old  system  the  workmen  were 
kept  day  after  day  in  comparatively  large  gangs, 
each  under  a  single  foreman,  and  the  gang  was  apt 
to  remain  of  pretty  nearly  the  same  size  whether 
there  was  much  or  little  of  the  particular  kind  of 
work  on  hand  which  this  foreman  had  under  his 
charge,  since  each  gang  had  to  be  kept  large  enough 
to  handle  whatever  work  in  its  special  line  was  likely 
to  come  along. 

When  one  ceases  to  deal  with  men  in  large  gangs 
or  groups,  and  proceeds  to  study  each  workman  as 


70      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

an  individual,  if  the  workman  fails  to  do  his  task, 
some  competent  teacher  should  be  sent  to  show  him 
exactly  how  his  work  can  best  be  done,  to  guide, 
help,  and  encourage  him,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to 
study  his  possibihties  as  a  workman.  So  that,  under 
the  plan  which  individuahzes  each  workman,  instead 
of  brutally  discharging  the  man  or  lowering  his 
wages  for  failing  to  make  good  at  once,  he  is  given 
the  time  and  the  help  required  to  make  him  pro- 
ficient at  his  present  job,  or  he  is  shifted  to  another 
class  of  work  for  which  he  is  either  mentally  or 
physically  better  suited. 

All  of  this  requires  the  kindly  cooperation  of  the 
management,  and  involves  a  much  more  elaborate 
organization  and  system  than  the  old-fashioned 
herding  of  men  in  large  gangs.  This  organization 
consisted,  in  this  case,  of  one  set  of  men,  who  were 
engaged  in  the  development  of  the  science  of  laboring 
through  time  study,  such  as  has  been  described 
above;  another  set  of  men,  mostly  skilled  laborers 
themselves,  who  were  teachers,  and  who  helped  and 
guided  the  men  in  their  work;  another  set  of  tool- 
room men  who  provided  them  with  the  proper 
implements  and  kept  them  in  perfect  order,  and 
another  set  of  clerks  who  planned  the  work  well  in 
advance,  moved  the  men  with  the  least  loss  of  time 
from  one  place  to  another,  and  properly  recorded 
each  man's  earnings,  etc.  And  this  furnishes  an 
elementary  illustration  of  what  has  been  referred 
to  as  cooperation  between  the  management  and  the 
workmen. 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       71 

The  question  which  naturally  presents  itself  is 
whether  an  elaborate  organization  of  this  sort  can 
be  made  to  pay  for  itself;  whether  such  an  organiza- 
tion is  not  top-heavy.  This  question  will  best  be 
answered  by  a  statement  of  the  results  of  the  third 
year  of  working  under  this  plan. 

Old  Plan  New  Plan 

Task  Work 
The  number  of  yard  laborers 

was  reduced  from  between      400  &  600  down  to  about  140 

Average  number  of  tons  per 

man  per  day   16  59 

Average  earnings  per   man 

per  day $1.15  $1.88 

Average  cost  of  handling  a 

ton  of  2240  lbs $0,072  $0,033 

And  in  computing  the  low  cost  of  S0.033  per  ton,  the 
office  and  tool-room  expenses,  and  the  wages  of  all 
labor  superintendents,  foremen,  clerks,  time-study 
men,  etc.,  are  included. 

During  this  year  the  total  saving  of  the  new  plan 
over  the  old  amounted  to  $36,417.69,  and  during 
the  six  months  following,  when  all  of  the  work  of 
the  yard  was  on  task  work,  the  saving  was  at  the 
rate  of  between  $75,000  and  $80,000  per  year. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  of  all  the  results 
attained  was  the  effect  on  the  workmen  themselves. 
A  careful  inquiry  into  the  condition  of  these  men 
developed  the  fact  that  out  of  the  140  workmen  only 
two  were  said  to  be  drinking  men.  This  does  not, 
of  course,  imply  that  many  of  them  did  not  take  an 
occasional  drink.     The  fact  is  that  a  steady  drinker 


72      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

would  find  it  almost  impossible  to  keep  up  with  the 
pace  which  was  set,  so  that  they  were  practically 
all  sober.  Many,  if  not  most  of  them,  were  saving 
money,  and  they  all  lived  better  than  they  had 
before.  These  men  constituted  the  finest  body  of 
picked  laborers  that  the  writer  has  ever  seen  together, 
and  they  looked  upon  the  men  who  were  over  them, 
their  bosses  and  their  teachers,  as  their  very  best 
friends;  not  as  nigger  drivers,  forcing  them  to  work 
extra  hard  for  ordinary  wages,  but  as  friends  who 
were  teaching  them  and  helping  them  to  earn  much 
higher  wages  than  they  had  ever  earned  before. 
It  would  have  been  absolutely  impossible  for  any  one 
to  have  stirred  up  strife  between  these  men  and  their 
employers.  And  this  presents  a  very  simple  though 
effective  illustration  of  what  is  meant  by  the  words 
"prosperity  for  the  employe,  coupled  with  prosperity 
for  the  employer,"  the  two  principal  objects  of  man- 
agement. It  is  evident  also  that  this  result  has 
been  brought  about  by  the  application  of  the  four 
fundamental  principles  of  scientific  management. 

As  another  illustration  of  the  value  of  a  scientific 
study  of  the  motives  which  influence  workmen  in  their 
daily  work,  the  loss  of  ambition  and  initiative  will 
be  cited,  which  takes  place  in  workmen  when  they 
are  herded  into  gangs  instead  of  being  treated  as 
separate  individuals.  A  careful  analysis  had  dem- 
onstrated the  fact  that  when  workmen  are  herded 
together  in  gangs,  each  man  in  the  gang  becomes 
far  less  efficient  than  when  his  personal  ambition 
is  stimulated;  that  when  men  work  in  gangs,  their 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       73 

individual  efficiency  falls  almost  invariably  down  to 
or  below  the  level  of  the  worst  man  in  the  gang; 
and  that  they  are  all  pulled  down  instead  of  being 
elevated  by  being  herded  together.  For  this  reason 
a  general  order  had  been  issued  in  the  Bethlehem 
Steel  Works  that  not  more  than  four  men  were  to 
be  allowed  to  work  in  a  labor  gang  without  a  special 
permit,  signed  by  the  General  Superintendent  of  the 
works,  this  special  permit  to  extend  for  one  week 
only.  It  was  arranged  that  as  far  as  possible  each 
laborer  should  be  given  a  separate  individual  task. 
As  there  were  about  5000  men  at  work  in  the  estab- 
lishment, the  General  Superintendent  had  so  much 
to  do  that  there  was  but  little  time  left  for  signing 
these  special  permits. 

After  gang  work  had  been  by  this  means  broken 
up,  an  unusually  fine  set  of  ore  shovelers  had  been 
developed,  through  careful  selection  and  individual, 
scientific  training.  Each  of  these  men  was  given  a 
separate  car  to  unload  each  day,  and  his  wages 
depended  upon  his  own  personal  work.  The  man 
who  unloaded  the  largest  amount  of  ore  was  paid 
the  highest  wages,  and  an  unusual  opportunity  came 
for  demonstrating  the  importance  of  individualizing 
each  workman.  Much  of  this  ore  came  from  the 
Lake  Superior  region,  and  the  same  ore  was  delivered 
both  in  Pittsburg  and  in  Bethlehem  in  exactly  similar 
cars.  There  was  a  shortage  of  ore  handlers  in 
Pittsburg,  and  hearing  of  the  fine  gang  of  laborers 
that  had  been  developed  at  Bethlehem,  one  of  the 
Pittsburg   steel  works  sent   an   agent   to   hire   the 


74      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

Bethlehem  men.  The  Pittsburg  men  offered  4A 
cents  a  ton  for  unloading  exactly  the  same  ore,  with 
the  same  shovels,  from  the  same  cars,  that  were 
unloaded  in  Bethlehem  for  3A  cents  a  ton.  After 
carefully  considering  this  situation,  it  was  decided 
that  it  would  be  unwise  to  pay  more  than  3i\  cents 
per  ton  for  unloading  the  Bethlehem  cars,  because, 
at  this  rate,  the  Bethlehem  laborers  were  earning  a 
little  over  $1.85  per  man  per  day,  and  this  price 
was  60  per  cent,  more  than  the  ruling  rate  of  wages 
around  Bethlehem. 

A  long  series  of  experiments,  coupled  "udth  close 
observation,  had  demonstrated  the  fact  that  when 
workmen  of  this  caliber  are  given  a  carefully  measured 
task,  which  calls  for  a  big  day's  work  on  their  part, 
and  that  when  in  return  for  this  extra  effort  they  are 
paid  wages  up  to  60  per  cent,  beyond  the  wages 
usually  paid,  that  this  increase  in  wages  tends  to 
make  them  not  only  more  thrifty  but  better  men  in 
every  way;  that  they  live  rather  better,  begin  to 
save  money,  become  more  sober,  and  work  more 
steadily.  "WTien,  on  the  ether  hand,  the}"  receive 
much  more  than  a  60  per  cent,  increase  in  wages, 
many  of  them  will  work  irregularly  and  tend  to 
become  more  or  less  shiftless,  extravagant,  and  dissi- 
pated. Our  experiments  showed,  in  other  words, 
that  it  does  not  do  for  most  men  to  get  rich  too  fast. 

After  deciding,  for  this  reason,  not  to  raise  the 
wages  of  our  ore  handlers,  these  men  were  brought 
into  the  office  one  at  a  time,  and  talked  to  somewhat 
as  follows: 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       75 

"Now,  Patrick,  you  have  proved  to  us  that  you 
are  a  high-priced  man.  You  have  been  earning  every 
day  a  Httle  more  than  $1.85,  and  you  are  just  the 
sort  of  man  that  we  want  to  have  in  our  ore-shovel- 
ing gang.  A  man  has  come  here  from  Pittsburg, 
who  is  offering  4A  cents  per  ton  for  handling  ore 
while  we  can  pay  only  3 A  cents  per  ton.  I  think, 
therefore,  that  you  had  better  apply  to  this  man  for 
a  job.  Of  course,  you  know  we  are  very  sorry  to 
have  you  leave  us,  but  you  have  proved  yourself 
a  high-priced  man,  and  we  are  very  glad  to  see 
you  get  this  chance  of  earning  more  money.  Just 
remember,  however,  that  at  any  time  in  the  future, 
when  you  get  out  of  a  job,  you  can  alwaj^s  come  right 
back  to  us.  There  will  always  be  a  job  for  a  high- 
priced  man  hke  you  in  our  gang  here." 

Almost  all  of  the  ore  handlers  took  this  advice, 
and  went  to  Pittsburg,  but  in  about  six  weeks  most 
of  them  were  again  back  in  Bethlehem  unloading 
ore  at  the  old  rate  of  SA  cents  a  ton.  The  writer 
had  the  following  talk  with  one  of  these  men  after 
he  had  returned: 

''Patrick,  what  are  you  doing  back  here?  I 
thought  we  had  gotten  rid  of  you." 

''Well,  sir,  I'll  tell  you  how  it  was.  WTien  we 
got  out  there  Jimmy  and  I  were  put  on  to  a  car 
with  eight  other  men.  We  started  to  shovel  the 
ore  out  just  the  same  as  we  do  here.  After  about 
half  an  hour  I  saw  a  little  devil  alongside  of  me 
domg  pretty  near  nothing,  so  I  said  to  him,  'T\Tiy 
don't  you  go  to  work?     Unless  we  get  the  ore  out 


76       THE   PRI^XIPLES   OF   SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

of  this  car  we  won't   get  any  money  on  pay-day.' 

He  turned  to  me  and  said,  '  Who  in are  you? ' 

'Well.'  I  said,  'that's  none  of  your  business';  and 
the  little  devil  stood  up  to  me  and  said,  'You'll 
be  minding  your  own  business,  or  I'll  throw  you  off 
this  carl'  'Well,  I  could  have  spit  on  him  and 
drowned  him,  but  the  rest  of  the  men  put  do^^m  their 
shovels  and  looked  as  if  they  were  going  to  back 
him  up;  so  I  went  round  to  Jimmy  and  said  (so 
that  the  whole  gang  could  hear  it\  'Xow.  Jimmy, 
you  and  I  will  throw  a  shovehul  whenever  this  httle 
devil  throws  one,  and  not  another  shovelful.'  So 
we  watched  him.  and  only  shoveled  when  he  shoveled 
—  Allien  pay-day  came  around,  though,  we  had  less 
money  than  we  got  here  at  Bethlehem.  After  that 
Jimmy  and  I  went  in  to  the  boss,  and  asked  him 
for  a  car  to  ourselves,  the  same  as  we  got  at  Betlile- 
hem,  but  he  told  us  to  mind  our  ovm  business.  -Ajid 
when  another  pay-day  came  around  we  had  less 
money  than  we  got  here  at  Bethlehem,  so  Jimmy 
and  I  got  the  gang  together  and  brought  them  all 
back  here  to  work  again." 

^Mien  working  each  man  for  himself,  these  men 
were  able  to  earn  higher  wages  at  3t'u  cents  a  ton 
than  they  could  earn  when  they  were  paid  4tit  cents 
a  ton  on  gang  work:  and  this  again  shows  the  great 
gain  which  results  from  working  according  to  even 
the  most  elementary-  of  scientific  principles.  But 
it  also  shows  that  in  the  appHcation  of  the  most 
elementarv-  principles  it  is  necessarv'  for  the  manage- 
ment to  do  their  share  of  the  work  in  cooperating 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIEXTIFIC   MANAGEMENT        77 

with  the  workmen.  The  Pittsburg  managers  knew 
just  how  the  results  had  been  attained  at  Bethlehem, 
but  they  were  unTsilling  to  go  to  the  small  trouble 
and  expense  required  to  plan  ahead  and  assign  a 
separate  car  to  each  shoveler,  and  then  keep  an 
individual  record  of  each  man's  work,  and  pay  him 
just  what  he  had  earned. 

Bricklaying  is  one  of  the  oldest  of  our  trades. 
For  hundreds  of  years  there  has  been  little  or  no 
improvement  made  in  the  implements  and  materials 
used  in  this  trade,  nor  in  fact  in  the  method  of 
lapng  bricks.  In  spite  of  the  millions  of  men  who 
have  practised  this  trade,  no  great  improvement  has 
been  evolved  for  many  generations.  Here,  then, 
at  least,  one  would  expect  to  find  but  Httle  gain 
possible  through  scientific  analysis  and  study.  Mr. 
Frank  B.  Gilbreth,  a  member  of  our  Society,  who  had 
himself  studied  bricklapng  in  his  youth,  became 
interested  in  the  principles  of  scientific  management, 
and  decided  to  apply  them  to  the  art  of  bricklay- 
ing. He  made  an  intensely  interesting  analysis  and 
study  of  each  movement  of  the  bricklayer,  and  one 
after  another  eliminated  all  urmecessar}^  movements 
and  substituted  fast  for  slow  motions.  He  experi- 
mented with  every  minute  element  which  in  any 
way  affects  the  speed  and  the  tiring  of  the  brick- 
layer. 

He  developed  the  exact  position  which  each  of 
the  feet  of  the  bricklaj'er  should  occupy  with  rela- 
tion to  the  wall,  the  mortar  box,  and  the  pile  of 
bricks,  and  so  made  it  unnecessary  for  him  to  take 


78      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

a  step  or  two  toward  the  pile  of  bricks  and  back 
again  each  time  a  brick  is  laid. 

He  studied  the  best  height  for  the  mortar  box 
and  brick  pile,  and  then  designed  a  scaffold,  with  a 
table  on  it,  upon  which  all  of  the  materials  are  placed, 
so  as  to  keep  the  bricks,  the  mortar,  the  man,  and 
the  wall  in  their  proper  relative  positions.  These 
scaffolds  are  adjusted,  as  the  wall  grows  in  height, 
for  all  of  the  bricklayers  by  a  laborer  especially 
detailed  for  this  purpose,  and  by  this  means  the 
bricklayer  is  saved  the  exertion  of  stooping  down  to 
the  level  of  his  feet  for  each  brick  and  each  trowel- 
ful  of  mortar  and  then  straightening  up  again. 
Think  of  the  waste  of  effort  that  has  gone  on  through 
all  these  years,  with  each  bricklayer  lowering  his 
body,  weighing,  sa}",  150  pounds,  down  two  feet 
and  raising  it  up  again  every  time  a  brick  (weigh- 
ing about  5  pounds)  is  laid  in  the  wall!  And  this 
each  bricklayer  did  about  one  thousand  times  a  day. 

As  a  result  of  further  study,  after  the  bricks  are 
unloaded  from  the  cars,  and  before  bringing  them  to 
the  bricklayer,  they  are  carefully  sorted  by  a  laborer, 
and  placed  with  their  best  edge  up  on  a  simple 
wooden  frame,  constructed  so  as  to  enable  him 
to  take  hold  of  each  brick  in  the  quickest  time 
and  in  the  most  advantageous  position.  In  this 
way  the  bricklayer  avoids  either  having  to  turn 
the  brick  over  or  end  for  end  to  examine  it  before 
laying  it,  and  he  saves,  also,  the  time  taken  in  decid- 
ing which  is  the  best  edge  and  end  to  place  on  the 
outside  of  the  wall.     In  most  cases^  also,  he  saves 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       79 

the  time  taken  in  disentangling  the  brick  from  a 
disorderly  pile  on  the  scaffold.  This  "pack"  of 
bricks  (as  ]Mr.  Gilbreth  calls  his  loaded  wooden 
frames)  is  placed  by  the  helper  in  its  proper  position 
on  the  adjustable  scaffold  close  to  the  mortar  box. 

We  have  all  been  used  to  seeing  bricklayers  tap 
each  brick  after  it  is  placed  on  its  bed  of  mortar  sev- 
eral times  with  the  end  of  the  handle  of  the  trowel 
so  as  to  secure  the  right  thickness  for  the  joint. 
Mr.  Gilbreth  found  that  by  tempering  the  mor- 
tar just  right,  the  bricks  could  be  readily  bedded 
to  the  proper  depth  by  a  do^^Tiward  pressure  of  the 
hand  with  which  they  are  laid.  He  insisted  that 
his  mortar  mixers  should  give  special  attention  to 
tempering  the  mortar,  and  so  save  the  time  con- 
sumed in  tapping  the  brick. 

Through  all  of  this  minute  stud}^  of  the  motions 
to  be  made  by  the  bricklayer  in  laj'ing  bricks  under 
standard  conditions,  Mr.  Gilbreth  has  reduced  his 
movements  from  eighteen  motions  per  brick  to  five, 
and  even  in  one  case  to  as  low  as  two  motions 
per  brick.  He  has  given  all  of  the  details  of  this 
analysis  to  the  profession  in  the  chapter  headed 
"Motion  Study,"  of  his  book  entitled  "Bricklaying 
System,"  pubhshed  by  ^lyron  C.  Clerk  PubHshing 
Company,  New  York  and  Chicago;  E.  F.  N.  Spon, 
of  London. 

An  analysis  of  the  expedients  used  by  Mr.  Gilbreth 
in  reducing  the  motions  of  his  bricklayers  from 
eighteen  to  five  shows  that  this  improvement  has  been 
made  in  three  different  ways: 


80       THE   PRINCIPLES   OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

First.  He  has  entirely  dispensed  with  certain  move- 
ments which  the  bricklayers  in  the  past  believed  were 
necessar}'.  but  which  a  careful  study  and  trial  on 
his  part  have  shown  to  be  useless. 

Second.  He  has  introduced  simple  apparatus,  such 
as  his  adjustable  scaffold  and  his  packets  for  hold- 
ing the  bricks,  by  means  of  which,  with  a  very 
small  amount  of  cooperation  from  a  cheap  laborer, 
he  entirely  eliminates  a  lot  of  tiresome  and  time- 
consuming  motions  which  are  necessary'  for  the  brick- 
layer who  lacks  the  scaffold  and  the  packet. 

Third.  He  teaches  his  bricklaj^ers  to  make  simple 
motions  with  both  hands  at  the  same  time,  where 
before  they  completed  a  motion  with  the  right  hand 
and  followed  it  later  with  one  from  the  left  hand. 

For  example,  IMr.  Gilbreth  teaches  his  brick- 
layer to  pick  up  a  brick  in  the  left  hand  at  the  same 
instant  that  he  takes  a  trowelful  of  mortar  with 
the  right  hand.  This  work  with  two  hands  at  the 
same  time  is,  of  course,  made  possible  by  substitut- 
ing a  deep  mortar  box  for  the  old  mortar  board 
(on  which  the  mortar  spread  out  so  thin  that  a 
step  or  two  had  to  be  taken  to  reach  it)  and  then 
placing  the  mortar  box  and  the  brick  pile  close 
together,  and  at  the  proper  height  on  his  new 
scaffold. 

These  three  kinds  of  improvements  are  tj^^ical 
of  the  ways  in  which  needless  motions  can  be  entirely 
eliminated  and  quicker  types  of  movements  substi- 
tuted for  slow  movements  when  scientific  motion 
study,  as  Mr.  Gilbreth  calls  his  analysis,  time  study, 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT       81 

as  the  writer  has  called  similar  work,  are  apphed  in 
any  trade. 

Most  practical  men  would  (knowing  the  opposi- 
tion of  almost  all  tradesmen  to  making  any  change  in 
their  methods  and  habits),  however,  be  skeptical  as 
to  the  possibility  of  actually  achieving  any  large 
results  from  a  study  of  this  sort.  Mr.  Gilbreth 
reports  that  a  few  months  ago,  in  a  large  brick  build- 
ing which  he  erected,  he  demonstrated  on  a  com- 
mercial scale  the  great  gain  which  is  possible  from 
practically  applying  his  scientific  study.  With  union 
bricklayers,  in  laying  a  factory  wall,  twelve  inches 
thick,  with  two  kinds  of  brick,  faced  and  ruled  joints 
on  both  sides  of  the  wall,  he  averaged,  after  his 
selected  workmen  had  become  skilful  in  his  new 
methods,  350  bricks  per  man  per  hour;  whereas  the 
average  speed  of  doing  this  work  with  the  old 
methods  was,  in  that  section  of  the  country,  120 
bricks  per  man  per  hour.  His  bricklayers  were 
taught  his  new  method  of  bricklaying  by  their  fore- 
man. Those  who  failed  to  profit  by  their  teaching 
were  dropped,  and  each  man,  as  he  became  profi- 
cient under  the  new  method,  received  a  substantial 
(not  a  small)  increase  in  his  wages.  With  a  view  to 
individualizing  his  workmen  and  stimulating  each 
man  to  do  his  best,  Mr.  Gilbreth  also  developed  an 
ingenious  method  for  measuring  and  recording  the 
number  of  bricks  laid  by  each  man,  and  for  telling 
each  workman  at  frequent  intervals  how  many  bricks 
he  had  succeeded  in  laying. 

It  is  only  when  this  work  is  compared  with  the 


82       THE  PRINXIPLES   OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

conditions  which  prevail  under  the  tjTanny  of  some 
of  our  misguided  bricklayers'  unions  that  the  great 
waste  of  human  effort  which  is  going  on  will  be 
realized.  In  one  foreign  city  the  bricklayers'  union 
have  restricted  their  men  to  275  bricks  per  day 
on  work  of  this  character  when  working  for  the 
city,  and  375  per  day  when  working  for  private 
o-^Tiers.  The  members  of  this  union  are  probably 
sincere  in  their  beUef  that  this  restriction  of  output 
is  a  benefit  to  their  trade.  It  should  be  plain  to 
all  men,  however,  that  this  dehberate  loafing  is 
almost  criminal,  in  that  it  inevitably  results  in 
making  every  workman's  family  pay  higher  rent 
for  their  housing,  and  also  in  the  end  drives  work 
and  trade  away  from  their  city,  instead  of  bringing 
it  to  it. 

^Miy  is  it,  in  a  trade  which  has  been  continually 
practised  since  before  the  Christian  era,  and  -^ith 
implements  practically  the  same  as  they  now  are, 
that  this  simpHfication  of  the  bricklayer's  move- 
ments, this  great  gain,  has  not  been  made  before? 

It  is  highly  hkely  that  many  times  during  all  of 
these  years  individual  bricklayers  have  recognized 
the  possibihty  of  eliminating  each  of  these  unneces- 
sary motions.  But  even  if,  in  the  past,  he  did  invent 
each  one  of  Mr.  Gilbreth's  improvements,  no  brick- 
layer could  alone  increase  his  speed  through  their 
adoption  because  it  will  be  remembered  that  in  all 
cases  several  bricklayers  work  together  in  a  row  and 
that  the  walls  all  around  a  building  must  grow  at  the 
same  rate  of  speed.     Xo  one  bricklayer,  then,  can 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT      83 

work  much  faster  than  the  one  next  to  him.  Xor 
has  an}^  one  workman  the  authority  to  make  other 
men  cooperate  wdth  him  to  do  faster  work.  It  is 
only  through  enforced  standardization  of  methods, 
enforced  adoption  of  the  best  implements  and  work- 
ing conditions,  and  enforced  cooperation  that  this 
faster  work  can  be  assured.  And  the  duty  of  enforc- 
ing the  adoption  of  standards  and  of  enforcing  this 
cooperation  rests  with  the  management  alone.  The 
management  must  suppl}'  continually  one  or  more 
teachers  to  show  each  new  man  the  new  and  simpler* 
motions,  and  the  slower  men  must  be  constantly 
watched  and  helped  until  they  have  risen  to  their 
proper  speed.  All  of  those  who,  after  proper  teach- 
ing, either  will  not  or  cannot  work  in  accordance 
with  the  new  methods  and  at  the  higher  speed  must 
be  discharged  by  the  management.  The  management 
must  also  recognize  the  broad  fact  that  workmen 
will  not  submit  to  this  more  rigid  standardization 
and  will  not  work  extra  hard,  unless  they  receive 
extra  pay  for  doing  it. 

All  of  this  involves  an  individual  study  of  and 
treatment  for  each  man,  while  in  the  past  they  have 
been  handled  in  large  groups. 

The  management  must  also  see  that  those  who 
prepare  the  bricks  and  the  mortar  and  adjust  the 
scaffold,  etc.,  for  the  bricklayers,  cooperate  with 
them  by  doing  their  work  just  right  and  always  on 
time;  and  they  must  also  inform  each  bricklayer  at 
frequent  intervals  as  to  the  progress  he  is  making, 
so  that  he  may  not  unintentionally  fall  off  in  his 


84      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

pace.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  it  is  the  assump- 
tion by  the  management  of  new  duties  and  new 
kinds  of  work  never  done  by  employers  in  the  past 
that  makes  this  great  improvement  possible,  and 
that,  without  this  new  help  from  the  management, 
the  workman  even  with  full  knowledge  of  the  new 
methods  and  with  the  best  of  intentions  could  not 
attain  these  startHng  results. 

Mr.  Gilbreth's  method  of  bricklajdng  furnishes  a 
simple  illustration  of  true  and  effective  cooperation. 
Not  the  type  of  cooperation  in  which  a  mass  of 
workmen  on  one  side  together  cooperate  with  the 
management;  but  that  in  which  several  men  in  the 
management  (each  one  in  his  own  particular  way) 
help  each  workman  individually,  on  the  one  hand, 
by  studying  his  needs  and  his  shortcomings  and 
teaching  him  better  and  quicker  methods,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  by  seeing  that  all  other  workmen 
with  whom  he  comes  in  contact  help  and  cooperate 
with  him  by  doing  their  part  of  the  work  right  and 
fast. 

The  writer  has  gone  thus  fully  into  Mr.  Gilbreth's 
method  in  order  that  it  may  be  perfectly  clear  that 
this  increase  in  output  and  that  this  harmony  could 
not  have  been  attained  under  the  management  of 
"initiative  and  incentive"  (that  is,  by  putting  the 
problem  up  to  the  workman  and  leaving  him  to 
solve  it  alone)  which  has  been  the  philosophy  of  the 
past.  And  that  his  success  has  been  due  to  the  use 
of  the  four  elements  which  constitute  the  essence  of 
scientific  management. 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       85 

First.  The  development  (by  the  management,  not 
the  workman)  of  the  science  of  bricklaying,  with 
rigid  rules  for  each  motion  of  every  man,  and  the 
perfection  and  standardization  of  all  implements  and 
working  conditions. 

Second.  The  careful  selection  and  subsequent 
training  of  the  bricklayers  into  first-class  men,  and 
the  elimination  of  all  men  who  refuse  to  or  are 
unable  to  adopt  the  best  methods. 

Third.  Bringing  the  first-class  bricklayer  and  the 
science  of  bricklajdng  together,  through  the  con- 
stant help  and  watchfulness  of  the  management, 
and  through  paying  each  man  a  large  daily  bonus 
for  working  fast  and  doing  what  he  is  told  to  do. 

Fourth.  An  almost  equal  division  of  the  work  and 
responsibility  between  the  workman  and  the  manage- 
ment. All  da}^  long  the  management  work  almost 
side  by  side  with  the  men,  helping,  encouraging, 
and  smoothing  the  way  for  them,  while  in  the  past 
they  stood  one  side,  gave  the  men  but  little  help, 
and  threw  on  to  them  almost  the  entire  responsi- 
bility as  to  methods,  implements,  speed,  and  har- 
monious cooperation. 

Of  these  four  elements,  the  first  (the  development 
of  the  science  of  bricklajdng)  is  the  most  interesting 
and  spectacular.  Each  of  the  three  others  is,  how- 
ever, quite  as  necessary  for  success. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  back  of  all  this, 
and  directing  it,  there  must  be  the  optimistic, 
determined,  and  hard-working  leader  who  can  wait 
patiently  as  well  as  work. 


86      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

In  most  cases  (particularly  when  the  work  to  be 
done  is  intricate  in  its  nature)  the  '^  development 
of  the  science"  is  the  most  important  of  the  four 
great  elements  of  the  new  management.  There  are 
instances,  however,  in  which  the  '' scientific  selection 
of  the  workman"  counts  for  more  than  anything  else. 

A  case  of  this  type  is  well  illustrated  in  the  very 
simple  though  unusual  work  of  inspecting  bicycle 
balls. 

When  the  bicycle  craze  was  at  its  height  some 
years  ago  several  million  small  balls  made  of  hardened 
steel  were  used  annually  in  bicycle  bearings.  And 
among  the  twenty  or  more  operations  used  in  mak- 
ing steel  balls,  perhaps  the  most  important  was  that 
of  inspecting  them  after  final  polishing  so  as  to 
remove  all  fire-cracked  or  othervNdse  imperfect  balls 
before  boxing. 

The  writer  was  given  the  task  of  systematizing 
the  largest  bicycle  ball  factory  in  this  country. 
This  company  had  been  running  for  from  eight  to 
ten  years  on  ordinary  day  work  before  he  undertook 
its  reorganization,  so  that  the  one  hundred  and 
twenty  or  more  girls  who  were  inspecting  the  balls 
were  '^old  hands"  and  skilled  at  their  jobs. 

It  is  impossible  even  in  the  most  elementary  work 
to  change  rapidly  from  the  old  independence  of 
individual  day  work  to  scientific  cooperation. 

In  most  cases,  however,  there  exist  certain  imper- 
fections in  working  conditions  which  can  at  once  be 
improved  with  benefit  to  all  concerned. 

In  this  instance  it  was  found  that  the  inspectors 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT      87 

(girls)  were  working  ten  and  one-half  hours  per  day 
(with  a  Saturday  half  holiday.) 

Their  work  consisted  briefly  in  placing  a  row  of 
small  pohshed  steel  balls  on  the  back  of  the  left 
hand,  in  the  crease  between  two  of  the  fingers  pressed 
together,  and  while  they  were  rolled  over  and  over, 
they  were  minutely  examined  in  a  strong  light,  and 
with  the  aid  of  a  magnet  held  in  the  right  hand,  the 
defective  balls  were  picked  out  and  thrown  into 
especial  boxes.  Four  kinds  of  defects  were  looked 
for  —  dented,  soft,  scratched,  and  fire-cracked  — 
and  they  were  mostly  so  minute  as  to  be  invisible  to 
an  eye  not  especially  trained  to  this  work.  It 
required  the  closest  attention  and  concentration, 
so  that  the  nervous  tension  of  the  inspectors  was 
considerable,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  were 
comfortably  seated  and  were  not  physically  tired. 

A  most  casual  study  made  it  evident  that  a  very 
considerable  part  of  the  ten  and  one-half  hours 
during  which  the  girls  were  supposed  to  work  was 
really  spent  in  idleness  because  the  w^orking  period 
was  too  long. 

It  is  a  matter  of  ordinary  common  sense  to  plan 
working  hours  so  that  the  workers  can  really  '^work 
while  they  work"  and  ''play  while  they  play,"  and 
not  mix  the  two. 

Before  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Sanford  E.  Thompson, 
who  undertook  a  scientific  study  of  the  whole  pro- 
cess, w^e  decided,  therefore,  to  shorten  the  working 
hours. 

The  old  foreman  who  had  been  over  the  inspecting 


88      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

room  for  years  was  instructed  to  interview  one  after 
another  of  the  better  inspectors  and  the  more  in- 
fluential girls  and  persuade  them  that  they  could 
do  just  as  much  work  in  ten  hours  each  day  as  they 
had  been  doing  in  ten  and  one-half  hours.  Each  girl 
was  told  that  the  proposition  was  to  shorten  the  day's 
work  to  ten  hours  and  pay  them  the  same  day's  pay 
they  were  receiving  for  the  ten  and  one-haK  hours. 

In  about  two  weeks  the  foreman  reported  that  all 
of  the  girls  he  had  talked  to  agreed  that  they  could 
do  their  present  work  just  as  well  in  ten  hours  as 
in  ten  and  one-half  and  that  they  approved  of  the 
change. 

The  writer  had  not  been  especially  noted  for  his 
tact  so  he  decided  that  it  would  be  wise  for  him  to 
display  a  little  more  of  this  quality  by  having  the 
girls  vote  on  the  new  proposition.  This  decision 
was  hardly  justified,  however,  for  when  the  vote  was 
taken  the  girls  were  unanimous  that  lOi  hours  was 
good  enough  for  them  and  they  wanted  no  innova- 
tion of  any  kind. 

This  settled  the  matter  for  the  time  being.  A 
few  months  later  tact  was  throwTi  to  the  w^nds  and 
the  working  hours  were  arbitrarily  shortened  in  suc- 
cessive steps  to  10  hours,  9i,  9,  and  8i  (the  pay  per 
day  remaining  the  same);  and  with  each  shortening 
of  the  working  day  the  output  increased  instead  of 
diminishing. 

The  change  from  the  old  to  the  scientific  method 
in  this  department  was  made  under  the  direction 
of   Mr.   Sanford   E.   Thompson,   perhaps  the  most 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       89 

experienced  man  in  motion  and  time  study  in  this 
country,  under  the  general  superintendence  of  Mr. 
H.  L.  Gautt. 

In  the  Physiological  departments  of  our  univer- 
sities experiments  are  regularly  conducted  to  deter- 
mine what  is  kno'WTi  as  the  ''personal  coefficient" 
of  the  man  tested.  This  is  done  by  suddenly  bring- 
ing some  object,  the  letter  A  or  B  for  instance,  within 
the  range  of  vision  of  the  subject,  who,  the  instant 
he  recognizes  the  letter  has  to  do  some  definite 
thing,  such  as  to  press  a  particular  electric  button. 
The  time  which  elapses  from  the  instant  the  letter 
comes  in  view  until  the  subject  presses  the  button 
is  accurately  recorded  by  a  dehcate  scientific  instru- 
ment. 

This  test  shows  conclusively  that  there  is  a  great 
difference  in  the  "personal  coefiicient"  of  different 
men.  Some  individuals  are  born  with  unusually 
quick  powers  of  perception  accompanied  by  quick 
responsive  action.  With  some  the  message  is  almost 
instantly  transmitted  from  the  eye  to  the  brain,  and 
the  brain  equally  quickly  responds  by  sending  the 
proper  message  to  the  hand. 

Men  of  this  type  are  said  to  have  a  low  ''personal 
coefficient,"  while  those  of  slow  perception  and  slow 
action  have  a  high  "personal  coefficient." 

]\Ir.  Thompson  soon  recognized  that  the  quality 
most  needed  for  bicycle  ball  inspectors  was  a  low 
"personal  coefficient."  Of  course  the  ordinary  quali- 
ties of  endurance  and  industry  were  also  called  for. 

For  the  ultimate  good  of  the  girls  as  well  as  the 


90      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

company,  however,  it  became  necessary  to  exclude 
all  girls  who  lacked  a  low  '^  personal  coefficient." 
And  unfortunately  this  involved  laying  off  many  of 
the  most  intelligent,  hardest  working,  and  most 
trustworthy  girls  merely  because  they  did  not 
possess  the  quality  of  quick  perception  followed  by 
quick  action. 

While  the  gradual  selection  of  girls  was  going  on 
other  changes  were  also  being  made. 

One  of  the  dangers  to  be  guarded  against,  when  the 
pay  of  the  man  or  woman  is  made  in  any  way  to 
depend  on  the  quantity  of  the  work  done,  is  that  in 
the  effort  to  increase  the  quantity  the  quality  is  apt 
to  deteriorate. 

It  is  necessary  in  almost  all  cases,  therefore,  to 
take  definite  steps  to  insure  against  any  falling  off 
in  quality  before  moving  in  any  way  towards  an 
increase  in  quantity. 

In  the  work  of  these  particular  girls  quality  was 
the  very  essence.  They  were  engaged  in  picking 
out  all  defective  balls. 

The  first  step,  therefore,  was  to  make  it  impossible 
for  them  to  shght  their  work  without  being  found  out. 
This  was  accomplished  through  what  is  known  as 
over-inspection.  Each  one  of  four  of  the  most  trust- 
worthy girls  was  given  each  day  a  lot  of  balls  to 
inspect  which  had  been  examined  the  day  before  by 
one  of  the  regular  inspectors;  the  number  identify- 
ing the  lot  to  be  over-inspected  having  been  changed 
by  the  foreman  so  that  none  of  the  over-inspectors 
knew  whose  work  they  were  examining.     In  addition 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT      91 

to  this  one  of  the  lots  inspected  by  the  four  over- 
inspectors  was  examined  on  the  following  day  by 
the  chief  inspector,  selected  on  account  of  her 
especial  accuracy  and  integrity. 

An  effective  expedient  was  adopted  for  checking 
the  honesty  and  accuracy  of  the  over-inspection. 
Every  two  or  three  days  a  lot  of  balls  was  especially 
prepared  by  the  foreman,  who  counted  out  a  definite 
number  of  perfect  balls,  and  added  a  recorded  num- 
ber of  defective  balls  of  each  kind.  Neither  the 
inspectors  nor  the  over-inspectors  had  any  means 
of  distinguishing  this  prepared  lot  from  the  regular 
commercial  lots.  And  in  this  way  all  temptation 
to  sHght  their  work  or  make  false  returns  was  re- 
moved. 

After  insuring  in  this  way  against  deterioration 
in  quality,  effective  means  were  at  once  adopted  to 
increase  the  output.  Improved  day  work  was  sub- 
stituted for  the  old  sHpshod  method.  An  accurate 
daily  record  was  kept  both  as  to  the  quantity  and 
quality  of  the  work  done  in  order  to  guard  against 
any  personal  prejudice  on  the  part  of  the  foreman 
and  to  insure  absolute  impartiality  and  justice  for 
each  inspector.  In  a  comparatively  short  time  this 
record  enabled  the  foreman  to  stir  the  ambition  of 
all  the  inspectors  by  increasing  the  wages  of  those 
who  turned  out  a  large  quantity  and  good  quality, 
while  at  the  same  time  lowering  the  pay  of  those 
who  did  indifferent  work  and  discharging  others  who 
proved  to  be  incorrigibly  slow  or  careless.  A  careful 
examination  was  then  made  of  the  way  in  which  each 


92       THE   PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

girl  spent  her  time  and  an  accurate  time  study  was 
undertaken,  through  the  use  of  a  stop-watch  and 
record  blanks,  to  determine  how  fast  each  kind  of 
inspection  should  be  done,  and  to  establish  the 
exact  conditions  under  which  each  girl  could  do  her 
quickest  and  best  work,  while  at  the  same  time 
guarding  against  giving  her  a  task  so  severe  that  there 
was  danger  from  over  fatigue  or  exhaustion.  This 
investigation  showed  that  the  girls  spent  a  con- 
siderable part  of  their  time  either  in  partial  idle- 
ness, talking  and  half  working,  or  in  actually  doing 
nothing. 

Even  when  the  hours  of  labor  had  been  shortened 
from  lOi  to  8i  hours,  a  close  observ^ation  of  the  girls 
showed  that  after  about  an  hour  and  one-half  of  con- 
secutive work  they  began  to  get  nervous.  They  evi- 
dently needed  a  rest.  It  is  wise  to  stop  short  of  the 
point  at  which  overstrain  begins,  so  we  arranged  for 
them  to  have  a  ten  minutes  period  for  recreation  at 
the  end  of  each  hour  and  one  quarter.  During  these 
recess  periods  (two  of  ten  minutes  each  in  the  morning 
and  two  in  the  afternoon)  they  were  obUged  to  stop 
work  and  were  encouraged  to  leave  their  seats  and 
get  a  complete  change  of  occupation  by  walking 
around  and  talking,  etc. 

In  one  respect  no  doubt  some  people  will  say  that 
these  girls  were  brutally  treated.  They  were  seated 
so  far  apart  that  they  could  not  conveniently  talk 
while  at  work. 

Shortening  their  hours  of  labor,  however,  and 
providing  so  far  as  we  knew  the  most  favorable 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT      93 

working  conditions  made  it  possible  for  them  to 
really  work  steadily  instead  of  pretending  to  do  so. 

And  it  is  only  after  this  stage  in  the  reorganization 
is  reached,  when  the  girls  have  been  properly  selected 
and  on  the  one  hand  such  precautions  have  been 
taken  as  to  guard  against  the  possibility  of  over- 
driving them,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  tempta- 
tion to  sHght  their  work  has  been  removed  and  the 
most  favorable  working  conditions  have  been  estab- 
lished, that  the  final  step  should  be  taken  which 
insures  them  what  they  most  want,  namely,  high 
wages,  and  the  employers  what  they  most  want, 
namely,  the  maximum  output  and  best  quality  of 
work,  —  which  means  a  low  labor  cost. 

This  step  is  to  give  each  girl  each  day  a  carefully 
measured  task  which  demands  a  full  day's  work  from 
a  competent  operative,  and  also  to  give  her  a  large  pre- 
mium or  bonus  whenever  she  accomplishes  this  task. 

This  was  done  in  this  case  through  establishing 
what  is  known  as  differential  rate  piece  work.^ 
Under  this  system  the  pay  of  each  girl  was  increased 
in  proportion  to  the  quantity  of  her  output  and  also 
still  more  in  proportion  to  the  accuracy  of  her  work. 

As  will  be  shown  later,  the  differential  rate  (the 
lots  inspected  by  the  over-inspectors  forming  the 
basis  for  the  differential)  resulted  in  a  large  gain  in 
the  quantity  of  work  done  and  at  the  same  time  in 
a  marked  improvement  in  the  quality. 

Before  they  finall}^  worked  to  the  best  advantage 

^  See  paper  read  before  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers, 
by  Fred.  W.  Taylor,  Vol.  XVI,  p.  856,  entitled  "Piece  Rate  System." 


94      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

it  was  found  to  be  necessary  to  measure  the  output 
of  each  girl  as  often  as  once  every  hour,  and  to  send 
a  teacher  to  each  individual  who  was  found  to  be 
falling  behind  to  find  what  was  wrong,  to  straighten 
her  out,  and  to  encourage  and  help  her  to  catch  up. 

There  is  a  general  principle  back  of  this  which 
should  be  appreciated  by  all  of  those  who  are  espe- 
cially interested  in  the  management  of  men. 

A  reward,  if  it  is  to  be  effective  in  stimulating 
men  to  do  their  best  work,  must  come  soon  after 
the  work  has  been  done.  But  few  men  are  able  to 
look  forward  for  more  than  a  week  or  perhaps  at 
most  a  month,  and  work  hard  for  a  reward  which 
they  are  to  receive  at  the  end  of  this  time. 

The  average  workman  must  be  able  to  measure 
what  he  has  accomplished  and  clearly  see  his  reward 
at  the  end  of  each  day  if  he  is  to  do  his  best.  And 
more  elementary  characters,  such  as  the  young  girls 
inspecting  bicycle  balls,  or  children,  for  instance, 
should  have  proper  encouragement  either  in  the 
shape  of  personal  attention  from  those  over  them 
or  an  actual  reward  in  sight  as  often  as  once  an  hour. 

This  is  one  of  the  principal  reasons  why  coopera- 
tion or  "profit-sharing"  either  through  selling  stock 
to  the  employes  or  through  dividends  on  wages 
received  at  the  end  of  the  year,  etc.,  have  been  at 
the  best  only  mildly  effective  in  stimulating  men  to 
work  hard.  The  nice  time  which  they  are  sure  to 
have  to-day  if  they  take  things  easily  and  go  slowly 
proves  more  attractive  than  steady  hard  work  with 
a  possible  reward  to  be  shared  with  others  six  months 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT       95 

later.  A  second  reason  for  the  inefficiency  of  profit- 
sharing  schemes  had  been  that  no  form  of  coopera- 
tion has  yet  been  devised  in  which  each  individual 
is  allowed  free  scope  for  his  personal  ambition. 
Personal  ambition  always  has  been  and  will  remain 
a  more  powerful  incentive  to  exertion  than  a  desire 
for  the  general  welfare.  The  few  misplaced  drones, 
who  do  the  loafing  and  share  equally  in  the  profits, 
with  the  rest,  under  cooperation  are  sure  to  drag 
the  better  men  down  toward  their  level. 

Other  and  formidable  difficulties  in  the  path  of 
cooperative  schemes  are,  the  equitable  division  of 
the  profits,  and  the  fact  that,  while  workmen  are 
always  ready  to  share  the  profits,  they  are  neither 
able  nor  wilhng  to  share  the  losses.  Further  than 
this,  in  many  cases,  it  is  neither  right  nor  just  that 
they  should  share  either  the  profits  or  the  losses, 
since  these  may  be  due  in  great  part  to  causes 
entirely  beyond  their  influence  or  control,  and  to 
which  they  do  not  contribute. 

To  come  back  to  the  girls  inspecting  bicycle  balls, 
however,  the  final  outcome  of  all  the  changes  was 
that  thirty-five  girls  did  the  work  formerly  done  by 
one  hundred  and  twenty.  And  that  the  accuracy  of 
the  work  at  the  higher  speed  was  two-thirds  greater  than 
at  the  former  slow  speed. 

The  good  that  came  to  the  girls  was, 

First.  That  they  averaged  from  80  to  100  per  cent, 
higher  wages  than  they  formerly  received. 

Second.  Their  hours  of  labor  were  shortened  from 
lOi  to  8i  per  day,  with  a  Saturday  half  holiday.    And 


96      THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

they  were  given  four  recreation  periods  properly 
distributed  through  the  da}^,  which  made  overwork- 
ing impossible  for  a  healthy  girl. 

Third.  Each  girl  was  made  to  feel  that  she  was 
the  object  of  especial  care  and  interest  on  the  part 
of  the  management,  and  that  if  anj'thing  went  wrong 
with  her  she  could  always  have  a  helper  and  teacher 
in  the  management  to  lean  upon. 

Fourth.  All  young  women  should  be  given  two 
consecutive  days  of  rest  (with  pay)  each  month,  to 
be  taken  whenever  they  may  choose.  It  is  my 
impression  that  these  girls  were  given  this  privilege, 
although  I  am  not  quite  certain  on  this  point. 

The  benefits  which  came  to  the  company  from 
these  changes  were : 

First.  A  substantial  improvement  in  the  quality 
of  the  product. 

Second.  A  material  reduction  in  the  cost  of 
inspection,  in  spite  of  the  extra  expense  involved 
in  clerk  work,  teachers,  time  stud}^  over-inspectors, 
and  in  paying  higher  wages. 

Third.  That  the  most  friendly  relations  existed 
between  the  management  and  the  employes,  which 
rendered  labor  troubles  of  any  kind  or  a  strike 
impossible. 

These  good  results  were  brought  about  by  many 
changes  which  substituted  favorable  for  imfavor- 
able  working  conditions.  It  should  be  appreciated, 
however,  that  the  one  element  which  did  more  than 
all  of  the  others  was,  the  careful  selection  of  girls 
with  quick  perception  to  replace  those  whose  per- 


THE   PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT       97 

ceptions  were  slow  —  (the  substitution  of  girls  with 
a  low  personal  coefi&cient  for  those  whose  personal 
coefficient  was  high)  —  the  scientific  selection  of  the 
workers. 

The  illustrations  have  thus  far  been  purposely 
confined  to  the  more  elementarj^  types  of  work,  so 
that  a  very  strong  doubt  linust  still  remain  as  to 
whether  this  kind  of  cooperation  is  desirable  in  the 
case  of  more  intelligent  mechanics,  that  is,  in  the 
case  of  men  who  are  more  capable  of  generahzation, 
and  who  would  therefore  be  more  likely,  of  their 
own  voHtion,  to  choose  the  more  scientific  and  better 
methods.  The  following  illustrations  will  be  given 
for  the  purpose  of  demonstrating  the  fact  that  in 
the  higher  classes  of  work  the  scientific  laws  which 
are  developed  are  so  intricate  that  the  high-priced 
mechanic  needs  (even  more  than  the  cheap  laborer) 
the  cooperation  of  men  better  educated  than  him- 
self in  finding  the  laws,  and  then  in  selecting,  develop- 
ing, and  training  him  to  work  in  accordance  with 
these  laws.  These  illustrations  should  make  per- 
fectly clear  our  original  proposition  that  in  practi- 
cally all  of  the  mechanic  arts  the  science  which 
underlies  each  workman's  act  is  so  great  and  amounts 
to  so  much  that  the  workman  who  is  best  suited 
to  actuaU}'  doing  the  work  is  incapable,  either  through 
lack  of  education  or  through  insufficient  mental 
capacity,  of  understanding  this  science. 

A  doubt,  for  instance,  will  remain  in  the  minds 
perhaps  of  most  readers  (in  the  case  of  an  estabfish- 
ment  which  manufactures  the  same  machine,  year 


98       THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

in  and  year  out,  in  large  quantities,  and  in  which, 
therefore,  each  mechanic  repeats  the  same  limited 
series  of  operations  over  and  over  again),  whether 
the  ingenuity  of  each  workman  and  the  help  which 
he  from  time  to  time  receives  from  his  foreman 
will  not  develop  such  superior  methods  and  such  a 
personal  dexterity  that*"  no  scientific  study  which 
could  be  made  would  result  in  a  material  increase 
in  efficiency. 

A  number  of  years  ago  a  company  employing  about 
three  hundred  men,  which  had  been  manufacturing 
the  same  machine  for  ten  to  fifteen  years,  sent  for 
us  to  report  as  to  whether  any  gain  could  be  made 
through  the  introduction  of  scientific  management. 
Their  shops  had  been  run  for  many  years  under  a 
good  superintendent  and  with  excellent  foremen 
and  workmen,  on  piece  work.  The  whole  establish- 
ment was,  without  doubt,  in  better  physical  condi- 
tion than  the  average  machine-shop  in  this  country. 
The  superintendent  was  distinctly  displeased  when 
told  that  through  the  adoption  of  task  management 
the  output,  with  the  same  number  of  men  and 
machines,  could  be  more  than  doubled.  He  said 
that  he  believed  that  any  such  statement  was  mere 
boasting,  absolutely  false,  and  instead  of  inspiring 
him  with  confidence,  he  was  disgusted  that  any  one 
should  make  such  an  impudent  claim.  He,  how- 
ever, readily  assented  to  the  proposition  that  he 
should  select  any  one  of  the  machines  whose  output 
he  considered  as  representing  the  average  of  the 
shop,  and  that  we  should  then  demonstrate  on  this 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT      99 

machine  that  through  scientific  methods  its  ouptut 
could  be  more  than  doubled. 

The  machine  selected  by  him  fairly  represented 
the  work  of  the  shop.  It  had  been  run  for  ten  or 
twelve  years  past  by  a  first-class  mechanic  who  was 
more  than  equal  in  his  ability  to  the  average  work- 
men in  the  establishment.  In  a  shop  of  this  sort, 
in  which  similar  machines  are  made  over  and  over 
again,  the  work  is  necessarily  greatly  subdivided, 
so  that  no  one  man  works  upon  more  than  a  com- 
paratively small  number  of  parts  during  the  year. 
A  careful  record  was  therefore  made,  in  the  presence 
of  both  parties,  of  the  time  actually  taken  in  finish- 
ing each  of  the  parts  which  this  man  worked  upon. 
The  total  time  required  by  him  to  finish  each  piece, 
as  well  as  the  exact  speeds  and  feeds  which  he  took, 
were  noted,  and  a  record  was  kept  of  the  time  which 
he  took  in  setting  the  work  in  the  machine  and  remov- 
ing it.  After  obtaining  in  this  way  a  statement  of 
what  represented  a  fair  average  of  the  work  done  in 
the  shop,  we  applied  to  this  one  machine  the  principles 
of  scientific  management. 

By  means  of  four  quite  elaborate  slide-rules,  which 
have  been  especially  made  for  the  purpose  of  deter- 
mining the  all-round  capacity  of  metal-cutting  ma- 
chines, a  careful  analysis  was  made  of  every  element 
of  this  machine  in  its  relation  to  the  work  in  hand. 
Its  pulling  power  at  its  various  speeds,  its  feeding 
capacity,  and  its  proper  speeds  were  determined  by 
means  of  the  slide-rules,  and  changes  were  then 
made  in  the  countershaft  and  driving  pulleys  so  as 


100     THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

to  run  it  at  its  proper  speed.  Tools,  made  of  high- 
speed steel,  and  of  the  proper  shapes,  were  properly 
dressed,  treated,  and  ground.  (It  should  be  under- 
stood, however,  that  in  this  case  the  high-speed 
steel  w^hich  had  heretofore  been  in  general  use  in  the 
shop  was  also  used  in  our  demonstration.)  A  large 
special  slide-rule  was  then  made,  b}'  means  of  which 
the  exact  speeds  and  feeds  were  indicated  at  which 
each  kind  of  work  could  be  done  in  the  shortest 
possible  time  in  this  particular  lathe.  After  pre- 
paring in  this  way  so  that  the  workman  should 
w^ork  according  to  the  new  method,  one  after  another, 
pieces  of  work  were  finished  in  the  lathe,  correspond- 
ing to  the  work  which  had  been  done  in  our  pre- 
liminary' trials,  and  the  gain  in  time  made  through 
running  the  machine  according  to  scientific  principles 
ranged  from  two  and  one-half  times  the  speed  in  the 
slowest  instance  to  nine  times  the  speed  in  the 
highest. 

The  change  from  rule-of-thumb  management  to 
scientific  management  involves,  however,  not  only 
a  study  of  what  is  the  proper  speed  for  doing  the 
work  and  a  remodeling  of  the  tools  and  the  imple- 
ments in  the  shop,  but  also  a  complete  change  in 
the  mental  attitude  of  all  the  men  in  the  shop 
toward  their  work  and  toward  their  employers. 
The  physical  improvements  in  the  machines  neces- 
sary to  insure  large  gains,  and  the  motion  study 
followed  by  minute  study  with  a  stop-watch  of  the 
time  in  which  each  workman  should  do  his  work, 
can    be    made    comparatively    quickly.      But    the 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT    101 

change  in  the  mental  attitude  and  in  the  habits 
of  the  three  hundred  or  more  workmen  can  be 
brought  about  only  slowly  and  through  a  long 
series  of  object-lessons,  which  finally  demonstrates 
to  each  man  the  great  advantage  which  he  will 
gain  b}^  heartily  cooperating  in  his  everj^-day  work 
■^vith  the  men  in  the  management.  Within  three 
3'ears,  however,  in  this  shop,  the  output  had  been 
more  than  doubled  per  man  and  per  machine. 
The  men  had  been  carefull}-  selected  and  in  almost 
all  cases  promoted  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  order 
of  work,  and  so  instructed  by  their  teachers  (the 
functional  foremen)  that  they  were  able  to  earn 
higher  wages  than  ever  before.  The  average  increase 
in  the  daily  earnings  of  each  man  was  about  35 
per  cent.,  while,  at  the  same  time,  the  sum  total  of 
the  wages  paid  for  doing  a  given  amount  of  work 
was  lower  than  before.  This  increase  in  the  speed 
of  doing  the  work,  of  course,  involved  a  substitution 
of  the  quickest  hand  methods  for  the  old  independent 
rule-of-thumb  methods,  and  an  elaborate  anal3'sis 
of  the  hand  work  done  by  each  man.  (By  hand 
work  is  meant  such  work  as  depends  upon  the 
manual  dexterity  and  speed  of  a  workman,  and 
which  is  independent  of  the  work  done  by  the 
machine.)  The  time  saved  by  scientific  hand  work 
was  in  many  cases  greater  even  than  that  saved  in 
machine-work. 

It  seems  important  to  fully  explain  the  reason 
why,  -^nth  the  aid  of  a  slide-rule,  and  after  having 
studied  the  art  of  cutting  metals,  it  was  possible 


102    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

for  the  scientifically  equipped  man,  who  had  never 
before  seen  these  particular  jobs,  and  who  had  never 
worked  on  this  machine,  to  do  work  from  two  and 
one-half  to  nine  times  as  fast  as  it  had  been  done 
before  by  a  good  mechanic  who  had  spent  his  whole 
time  for  some  ten  to  twelve  years  in  doing  this 
very  work  upon  this  particular  machine.  In  a  word, 
this  was  possible  because  the  art  of  cutting  metals 
involves  a  true  science  of  no  small  magnitude,  a 
science,  in  fact,  so  intricate  that  it  is  impossible  for 
any  machinist  who  is  suited  to  running  a  lathe  year 
in  and  year  out  either  to  understand  it  or  to  work 
according  to  its  laws  without  the  help  of  men  who 
have  made  this  their  specialty.  Men  who  are  un- 
famihar  with  machine-shop  work  are  prone  to  look 
upon  the  manufacture  of  each  piece  as  a  special 
problem,  independent  of  any  other  kind  of  machine- 
work.  They  are  apt  to  think,  for  instance,  that  the 
problems  connected  with  making  the  parts  of  an 
engine  require  the  especial  study,  one  may  say  almost 
the  life  study,  of  a  set  of  engine-making  mechanics, 
and  that  these  problems  are  entirely  different  from 
those  which  would  be  met  with  in  machining  lathe 
or  planer  parts.  In  fact,  however,  a  study  of  those 
elements  which  are  peculiar  either  to  engine  parts 
or  to  lathe  parts  is  trifling,  compared  with  the  great 
study  of  the  art,  or  science,  of  cutting  metals,  upon 
a  knowledge  of  which  rests  the  ability  to  do  really 
fast  machine-work  of  all  kinds. 

The  real  problem  is  how  to  remove  chips  fast  from 
a  casting  or  a  forging,  and  how  to  make  the  piece 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     103 

smooth  and  true  in  the  shortest  time,  and  it  matters 
but  Uttle  whether  the  piece  being  worked  upon  is 
part,  say,  of  a  marine  engine,  a  printing-press,  or  an 
automobile.  For  this  reason,  the  man  with  the  shde- 
rule,  famihar  with  the  science  of  cutting  metals,  who 
had  never  before  seen  this  particular  work,  was  able 
completely  to  distance  the  skilled  mechanic  who  had 
made  the  parts  of  this  machine  his  specialty  for  years. 
It  is  true  that  whenever  intelligent  and  educated 
men  find  that  the  responsibility  for  making  progress 
in  any  of  the  mechanic  arts  rests  with  them,  instead 
of  upon  the  workmen  who  are  actually  laboring  at 
the  trade,  that  they  almost  invariably  start  on  the 
road  which  leads  to  the  development  of  a  science 
where,  in  the  past,  has  existed  mere  traditional  or 
rule-of-thumb  knowledge.  When  men,  whose  educa- 
tion has  given  them  the  habit  of  generalizing  and 
everywhere  looking  for  laws,  find  themselves  con- 
fronted with  a  multitude  of  problems,  such  as  exist 
in  every  trade  and  which  have  a  general  similarity 
one  to  another,  it  is  inevitable  that  they  should 
try  to  gather  these  problems  into  certain  logical 
groups,  and  then  search  for  some  general  laws  or 
rules  to  guide  them  in  their  solution.  As  has  been 
pointed  out,  however,  the  underlying  principles  of 
the  management  of  ''initiative  and  incentive,"  that 
is,  the  underlying  philosophy  of  this  management, 
necessarily  leaves  the  solution  of  all  of  these  problems 
in  the  hands  of  each  individual  workman,  while 
the  philosophy  of  scientific  management  places  their 
solution   in   the   hands   of   the   management.     The 


104    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

workman's  whole  time  is  each  day  taken  in  actually 
doing  the  work  with  his  hands,  so  that,  even  if  he 
had  the  necessary  education  and  habits  of  generaliz- 
ing in  his  thought,  he  lacks  the  time  and  the  oppor- 
tunity for  developing  these  laws,  because  the  study 
of  even  a  simple  law  involving  say  time  study  re- 
quires the  cooperation  of  two  men,  the  one  doing  the 
work  while  the  other  times  him  with  a  stop-watch. 
And  even  if  the  workman  were  to  develop  laws 
where  before  existed  only  rule-of -thumb  knowledge, 
his  personal  interest  would  lead  him  almost  inevita- 
bly to  keep  his  discoveries  secret,  so  that  he  could,  by 
means  of  this  special  knowledge,  personally  do  more 
work  than  other  men  and  so  obtain  higher  wages. 

Under  scientific  management,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  becomes  the  duty  and  also  the  pleasure  of  those 
who  are  engaged  in  the  management  not  only  to 
develop  laws  to  replace  rule  of  thumb,  but  also  to 
teach  impartially  all  of  the  workmen  who  are  under 
them  the  quickest  ways  of  working.  The  useful 
results  obtained  from  these  laws  are  alwaj^s  so  great 
that  any  company  can  well  afford  to  pay  for  the 
time  and  the  experiments  needed  to  develop  them. 
Thus  under  scientific  management  exact  scientific 
knowledge  and  methods  are  ever^^'here,  sooner  or 
later,  sure  to  replace  rule  of  thumb,  whereas  under 
the  old  type  of  management  working  in  accordance 
with  scientific  laws  is  an  impossibility. 

The  development  of  the  art  or  science  of  cutting 
metals  is  an  apt  illustration  of  this  fact.  In  the  fall 
of  1880,  about  the  time  that  the  writer  started  to 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     105 

make  the  experiments  above  referred  to,  to  determine 
what  constitutes  a  proper  day's  work  for  a  laborer, 
he  also  obtained  the  permission  of  Mr.  William 
Sellers,  the  President  of  the  Midvale  Steel  Com- 
pany, to  make  a  series  of  experiments  to  determine 
what  angles  and  shapes  of  tools  were  the  best  for 
cutting  steel,  and  also  to  try  to  determine  the  proper 
cutting  speed  for  steel.  At  the  time  that  these 
experiments  were  started  it  was  his  belief  that  they 
would  not  last  longer  than  six  months,  and,  in  fact, 
if  it  had  been  known  that  a  longer  period  than  this 
would  be  required,  the  permission  to  spend  a  con- 
siderable sum  of  money  in  making  them  would  not 
have  been  forthcoming. 

A  66-inch  diameter  vertical  boring-mill  was  the 
first  machine  used  in  making  these  experiments, 
and  large  locomotive  tires,  made  out  of  hard 
steel  of  uniform  quality,  were  day  after  day  cut 
up  into  chips  in  gradually  learning  how  to  make, 
shape,  and  use  the  cutting  tools  so  that  they  would 
do  faster  work.  At  the  end  of  six  months  sufficient 
practical  information  had  been  obtained  to  far  more 
than  repay  the  cost  of  materials  and  wages  which 
had  been  expended  in  experimenting.  And  yet  the 
comparatively  small  number  of  experiments  which 
had  been  made  served  principally  to  make  it  clear 
that  the  actual  knowledge  attained  was  but  a  small 
fraction  of  that  which  still  remained  to  be  developed, 
and  which  was  badly  needed  by  us,  in  our  daily  at- 
tempt to  direct  and  help  the  machinists  in  their  tasks. 

Experiments  in  this  field  were  carried  on,  with 


106    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

occasional  interruption,  through  a  period  of  about 
26  3'ears,  in  the  course  of  which  ten  different  experi- 
mental machines  were  especially  fitted  up  to  do 
this  work.  Between  30,000  and  50,000  experi- 
ments were  carefully  recorded,  and  many  other 
experiments  were  made,  of  which  no  record  was 
kept.  In  studj'ing  these  laws  more  than  800,000 
pounds  of  steel  and  iron  was  cut  up  into  chips  vnth 
the  experimental  tools,  and  it  is  estimated  that  from 
$150,000  to  $200,000  was  spent  m  the  investigation. 

Work  of  this  character  is  intensely  interesting  to 
any  one  who  has  any  love  for  scientific  research. 
For  the  purpose  of  this  paper,  however,  it  should  be 
fully  appreciated  that  the  motive  power  which  kept 
these  experiments  going  through  many  3'ears,  and 
which  supphed  the  money  and  the  opportunity  for 
their  accompUshment,  was  not  an  abstract  search 
after  scientific  knowledge,  but  was  the  verj^  practical 
fact  that  we  lacked  the  exact  information  which  was 
needed  every  day,  in  order  to  help  our  machinists  to  do 
their  work  in  the  best  way  and  in  the  quickest  time. 

All  of  these  experiments  were  made  to  enable  us 
to  answer  correctlj^  the  two  questions  which  face 
exevy  machinist  each  time  that  he  does  a  piece  of 
work  in  a  metal-cutting  machine,  such  as  a  lathe, 
planer,  drill  press,  or  miUing  machine.  These  two 
questions  are: 

In  order  to  do  the  work  in  the  quickest  time, 

At  what  cutting  speed  shall  I  run  m}^  machine?  and 

WTiat  feed  shall  I  use? 

They  sound  so  simple  that  they  would  appear 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT    107 

to  call  for  merely  the  trained  judgment  of  any  good 
mechanic.  In  fact,  however,  after  working  26  years, 
it  has  been  found  that  the  answer  in  every  case 
involves  the  solution  of  an  intricate  mathematical 
problem,  in  which  the  effect  of  twelve  independent 
variables  must  be  determined. 

Each  of  the  twelve  following  variables  has  an 
important  effect  upon  the  answer.  The  figures 
which  are  given  with  each  of  the  variables  represent 
the  effect  of  this  element  upon  the  cutting  speed. 
For  example,  after  the  first  variable  (A)  we  quote, 
''The  proportion  is  as  1  in  the  case  of  semi-hardened 
steel  or  chilled  iron  to  100  in  the  case  of  a  very  soft, 
low-carbon  steel."  The  meaning  of  this  quotation 
is  that  soft  steel  can  be  cut  100  times  as  fast  as  the 
hard  steel  or  chilled  iron.  The  ratios  which  are 
given,  then,  after  each  of  these  elements,  indicate 
the  wide  range  of  judgment  which  practically  every 
machinist  has  been  called  upon  to  exercise  in  the 
past  in  determining  the  best  speed  at  which  to  run 
the  machine  and  the  best  feed  to  use. 

(A)  The  quality  of  the  metal  which  is  to  be  cut; 
i.e.,  its  hardness  or  other  qualities  which  affect  the 
cutting  speed.  The  proportion  is  as  1  in  the  case 
of  semi-hardened  steel  or  chilled  iron  to  100  in  the 
case  of  very  soft,  low-carbon  steel. 

(B)  The  chemical  composition  of  the  steel  from 
which  the  tool  is  made,  and  the  heat  treatment  of 
the  tool.  The  proportion  is  as  1  in  tools  made  from 
tempered  carbon  steel  to  7  in  the  best  high-speed  tools. 


108    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

(C)  The  thickness  of  the  shaving,  or,  the  thick- 
ness of  the  spiral  strip  or  band  of  metal  which  is  to 
be  removed  by  the  tool.  The  proportion  is  as  1  with 
thickness  of  shaving  ^V  of  an  inch  to  3i  with  thick- 
ness of  shaving  Vt  of  an  inch. 

(D)  The  shape  or  contour  of  the  cutting  edge  of 
the  tool.  The  proportion  is  as  1  in  a  thread  tool 
to  6  in  a  broad-nosed  cutting  tool. 

(E)  Whether  a  copious  stream  of  water  or  other 
cooling  medium  is  used  on  the  tool.  The  proportion 
is  as  1  for  tool  running  dry  to  1.41  for  tool  cooled 
by  a  copious  stream  of  water. 

(F)  The  depth  of  the  cut.  The  proportion  is  as 
1  with  i-inch  depth  of  cut  to  1.36  with  i-inch  depth 
of  cut. 

(G)  The  duration  of  the  cut,  i.e.,  the  time  which 
a  tool  must  last  under  pressure  of  the  shaving  without 
being  reground.  The  proportion  is  as  1  when  tool 
is  to  be  ground  every  li  hours  to  1.20  when  tool 
is  to  be  ground  every  20  minutes. 

(H)  The  hp  and  clearance  angles  of  the  tool. 
The  proportion  is  as  1  with  lip  angle  of  68  degrees 
to  1.023  with  lip  angle  of  61  degrees. 

(J)  The  elasticity  of  the  work  and  of  the  tool  on 
account  of  producing  chatter.  The  proportion  is 
as  1  with  tool  chattering  to  1.15  with  tool  running 
smoothly. 

(K)  The  diameter  of  the  casting  or  forging  which 
is  being  cut. 

(L)  The  pressure  of  the  chip  or  shaving  upon  the 
cutting  surface  of  the  tool. 


THE   PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     109 

(]M)  The  pulling  power  and  the  speed  and  feed 
changes  of  the  machine. 

It  may  seem  preposterous  to  many  people  that 
it  should  have  required  a  period  of  26  years  to 
investigate  the  effect  of  these  twelve  variables  upon 
the  cutting  speed  of  metals.  To  those,  however, 
who  have  had  personal  experience  as  experimenters, 
it  will  be  appreciated  that  the  great  difficulty  of 
the  problem  Hes  in  the  fact  that  it  contains  so  many 
variable  elements.  And  in  fact  the  great  length  of 
time  consumed  in  making  each  single  experiment 
was  caused  by  the  difficulty  of  holding  eleven 
variables  constant  and  uniform  throughout  the 
experiment,  while  the  effect  of  the  tweffth  variable 
was  being  investigated.  Holding  the  eleven  variables 
constant  was  far  more  difficult  than  the  investiga- 
tion of  the  twelfth  element. 

As,  one  after  another,  the  effect  upon  the  cutting 
speed  of  each  of  these  variables  was  investigated,  in 
order  that  practical  use  could  be  made  of  this  knowl- 
edge, it  was  necessary''  to  find  a  mathematical  formula 
which  expressed  in  concise  form  the  laws  which  had 
been  obtained.  As  examples  of  the  twelve  formulae 
which  were  developed,  the  three  following  are  given: 

P  =  45,000  Z)«FJ 

(AO        \   0.2373  + ^"*       ■ 


no    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

After  these  laws  had  been  investigated  and  the 
various  formulae  which  mathematically  expressed 
them  had  been  determined,  there  still  remained  the 
difficult  task  of  how  to  solve  one  of  these  comph- 
cated  mathematical  problems  quickly  enough  to 
make  this  knowledge  available  for  every-day  use. 
If  a  good  mathematician  who  had  these  formulae 
before  him  were  to  attempt  to  get  the  proper  answer 
{i.e.,  to  get  the  correct  cutting  speed  and  feed  by 
working  in  the  ordinary  way)  it  would  take  him 
from  two  to  six  hours,  say,  to  solve  a  single  prob- 
lem; far  longer  to  solve  the  mathematical  problem 
than  would  be  taken  in  most  cases  by  the  workmen 
in  doing  the  whole  job  in  his  machine.  Thus  a  task 
of  considerable  magnitude  which  faced  us  was  that 
of  finding  a  quick  solution  of  this  problem,  and  as  we 
made  progress  in  its  solution,  the  whole  problem  was 
from  time  to  time  presented  by  the  writer  to  one  after 
another  of  the  noted  mathematicians  in  this  country. 
They  were  offered  any  reasonable  fee  for  a  rapid, 
practical  method  to  be  used  in  its  solution.  Some 
of  these  men  merely  glanced  at  it;  others,  for  the 
sake  of  being  courteous,  kept  it  before  them  for 
some  two  or  three  weeks.  They  all  gave  us  practi- 
cally the  same  answer:  that  in  many  cases  it  was 
possible  to  solve  mathematical  problems  which  con- 
tained four  variables,  and  in  some  cases  problems 
with  five  or  six  variables,  but  that  it  was  manifestly 
impossible  to  solve  a  problem  containing  twelve  vari- 
ables in  any  other  way  than  by  the  slow  process  of 
"trial  and  error." 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT    111 

A  quick  solution  was,  however,  so  much  of  a 
necessity  in  our  every-day  work  of  running  machine- 
shops,  that  in  spite  of  the  small  encouragement 
received  from  the  mathematicians,  we  continued  at 
irregular  periods,  through  a  term  of  fifteen  years, 
to  give  a  large  amount  of  time  searching  for  a  simple 
solution.  Four  or  five  men  at  various  periods  gave 
practically  their  whole  time  to  this  work,  and  finally, 
while  we  were  at  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company, 
the  slide-rule  was  developed  which  is  illustrated  on 
Folder  No.  11  of  the  paper  ''On  the  Art  of  Cutting 
Metals,"  and  is  described  in  detail  in  the  paper 
presented  by  Mr.  Carl  G.  Barth  to  the  American 
Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  entitled  ''SHde- 
rules  for  the  Machine-shop,  as  a  part  of  the  Taylor 
System  of  Management"  (Vol.  XXV  of  The  Transac- 
tions of  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engi- 
neers). By  means  of  this  slide-rule,  one  of  these 
intricate  problems  can  be  solved  in  less  than  a  half 
minute  by  any  good  mechanic,  whether  he  under- 
stands anything  about  mathematics  or  not,  thus 
making  available  for  every-day,  practical  use  the 
years  of  experimenting  on  the  art  of  cutting  metals. 

This  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  fact  that  some 
way  can  always  be  found  of  making  practical,  every- 
day use  of  complicated  scientific  data,  which  appears 
to  be  beyond  the  experience  and  the  range  of  the 
technical  training  of  ordinary  practical  men.  These 
slide-rules  have  been  for  years  in  constant  daily 
use  by  machinists  having  no  knowledge  of  mathe- 
matics. 


112     THE  PRINXIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

A  glance  at  the  intricate  mathematical  formulae 
(see  page  109)  which  represent  the  laws  of  cutting 
metals  should  clearly  show  the  reason  w^hy  it  is 
impossible  for  any  machinist,  without  the  aid  of 
these  laws,  and  who  depends  upon  his  personal  ex- 
perience, correctly  to  guess  at  the  answer  to  the  two 
questions, 

WTiat  speed  shall  I  use? 

WTiat  feed  shall  I  use? 
even  though  he  may  repeat  the  same  piece  of  work 
many  times. 

To  return  to  the  case  of  the  machinist  who  had 
been  working  for  ten  to  twelve  years  in  machining 
the  same  pieces  over  and  over  again,  there  was 
but  a  remote  chance  in  an}^  of  the  various  kinds  of 
work  which  this  man  did  that  he  should  hit  upon 
the  one  best  method  of  doing  each  piece  of  work  out 
of  the  hundreds  of  possible  methods  which  lay  before 
him.  In  considering  this  tj'pical  case,  it  must  also 
be  remembered  that  the  metal-cutting  machines 
throughout  our  machine-shops  have  practically  all 
been  speeded  by  their  makers  by  guesswork,  and 
without  the  knowledge  obtained  through  a  study  of 
the  art  of  cutting  metals.  In  the  machine-shops  sys- 
tematized by  us  we  have  found  that  there  is  not  one 
machine  in  a  hundred  which  is  speeded  b}'  its  makers 
at  anj'^here  near  the  correct  cutting  speed.  So  that, 
in  order  to  compete  with  the  science  of  cutting  metals, 
the  machinist,  before  he  could  use  proper  speeds, 
would  first  have  to  put  new  puUej^s  on  the  counter- 
shaft of  his  machine,  and  also  make  in  most  cases 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT      113 

changes  in  the  shapes  and  treatment  of  his  tools, 
etc.  Many  of  these  changes  are  matters  entirely 
beyond  his  control,  even  if  he  knows  what  ought  to 
be  done. 

If  the  reason  is  clear  to  the  reader  why  the  rule- 
of-thumb  knowledge  obtained  by  the  machinist  who 
is  engaged  on  repeat  work  cannot  possibly  compete 
with  the  true  science  of  cutting  metals,  it  should 
be  even  more  apparent  why  the  high-class  mechanic, 
who  is  called  upon  to  do  a  great  variety  of  work 
from  day  to  day,  is  even  less  able  to  compete  with 
this  science.  The  high-class  mechanic  who  does  a 
different  kind  of  work  each  day,  in  order  to  do  each 
job  in  the  quickest  time,  would  need,  in  addition  to 
a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  art  of  cutting  metals, 
a  vast  knowledge  and  experience  in  the  quickest  way 
of  doing  each  kind  of  hand  work.  And  the  reader, 
by  calling  to  mind  the  gain  which  was  made  by 
Mr.  Gilbreth  through  his  motion  and  time  study 
in  laying  bricks,  will  appreciate  the  great  possi- 
bilities for  quicker  methods  of  doing  all  kinds  of 
hand  work  which  lie  before  every  tradesman  after 
he  has  the  help  which  comes  from  a  scientific  motion 
and  time  study  of  his  work. 

For  nearly  thirty  years  past,  time-study  men 
connected  mth  the  management  of  machine-shops 
have  been  devoting  their  whole  time  to  a  scientific 
motion  study,  followed  by  accurate  time  study,  with 
a  stop-watch,  of  all  of  the  elements  connected  with 
the  machinist's  work.  When,  therefore,  the  teachers, 
who  form  one  section  of  the  management,  and  who 


114    THE  PRINXIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  M.^XAGEMEXT 

are  cooperating  ^ith  the  working  men,  are  in  pos- 
session both  of  the  science  of  cutting  metals  and  of 
the  equally  elaborate  motion-study  and  time-study 
science  connected  with  this  work,  it  is  not  difficult 
to  appreciate  why  even  the  highest  class  mechanic 
is  unable  to  do  his  best  work  -v^dthout  constant  daily 
assistance  from  his  teachers.  And  if  this  fact  has 
been  made  clear  to  the  reader,  one  of  the  important 
objects  in  writing  this  paper  will  have  been  reahzed. 

It  is  hoped  that  the  illustrations  which  have  been 
given  make  it  apparent  why  scientific  management 
must  ine\'itably  in  all  cases  produce  overwhelmingly 
greater  results,  both  for  the  company  and  its 
emplo3'es,  than  can  be  obtained  with  the  manage- 
ment of  "initiative  and  incentive."  And  it  should 
also  be  clear  that  these  results  have  been  attained, 
not  thi'ough  a  marked  superiority  in  the  mechanism 
of  one  type  of  management  over  the  mechanism 
of  another,  but  rather  through  the  substitution  of 
one  set  of  imderh-ing  principles  for  a  totally  different 
set  of  principles,  —  by  the  substitution  of  one 
philosoph}'  for  another  philosophy  in  industrial 
management. 

To  repeat  then  throughout  all  of  these  illustrations, 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  useful  results  have  hinged 
mainly  upon  (1)  the  substitution  of  a  science  for  the 
indi\'idual  judgment  of  the  workman;  (2)  the  scien- 
tific selection  and  development  of  the  workman,  after 
each  man  has  been  studied,  taught,  and  trained,  and 
one  may  say  experimented  with,  instead  of  allowing 
the  workmen  to  select  themselves  and  develop  in  a 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     115 

haphazard  way;  and  (3)  the  intimate  cooperation 
of  the  management  with  the  workmen,  so  that  they 
together  do  the  work  in  accordance  with  the  scientific 
laws  which  have  been  developed,  instead  of  leaving 
the  solution  of  each  problem  in  the  hands  of  the 
individual  workman.  In  applj'ing  these  new  prin- 
ciples, in  place  of  the  old  individual  effort  of  each 
workman,  both  sides  share  almost  equally  in  the 
daily  performance  of  each  task,  the  management 
doing  that  part  of  the  work  for  which  they  are  best 
fitted,  and  the  workmen  the  balance. 

It  is  for  the  illustration  of  this  philosophy  that 
this  paper  has  been  TSTitten,  but  some  of  the  ele- 
ments involved  in  its  general  principles  should  be 
further  discussed. 

The  development  of  a  science  sounds  like  a 
formidable  undertaking,  and  in  fact  anji:hing  Uke 
a  thorough  stud}^  of  a  science  such  as  that  of  cutting 
metals  necessarily  involves  many  j^ars  of  work. 
The  science  of  cutting  metals,  however,  represents 
in  its  compHcation,  and  in  the  time  required  to 
develop  it,  almost  an  extreme  case  in  the  mechanic 
arts.  Yet  even  in  this  very  intricate  science,  within 
a  few  months  after  starting,  enough  knowledge  had 
been  obtained  to  much  more  than  pay  for  the  work 
of  experimenting.  This  holds  true  in  the  case  of 
practically  all  scientific  development  in  the  mechanic 
arts.  The  first  laws  developed  for  cutting  metals 
were  crude,  and  contained  only  a  partial  knowledge 
of  the  truth,  yet  this  imperfect  knowledge  was  vastly 


116    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIEXTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

better  than  the  utter  lack  of  exact  information  or  the 
very  imperfect  rule  of  thumb  which  existed  before, 
and  it  enabled  the  workmen,  with  the  help  of  the 
management,  to  do  far  quicker  and  better  work. 

For  example,  a  very  short  time  was  needed  to 
discover  one  or  two  types  of  tools  which,  though 
imperfect  as  compared  with  the  shapes  developed 
years  afterward,  were  superior  to  all  other  shapes 
and  kinds  in  common  use.  These  tools  were  adopted 
as  standard  and  made  possible  an  immediate  increase 
in  the  speed  of  every  machinist  who  used  them. 
These  t}^es  were  superseded  in  a  comparatively 
short  time  by  still  other  tools  which  remained 
standard  until  they  in  their  turn  made  way  for  later 
improvements.^ 

The  science  which  exists  in  most  of  the  mechanic 
arts  is,  however,  far  simpler  than  the  science  of 
cutting  metals.  In  almost  all  cases,  in  fact,  the 
laws  or  rules  which  are  developed  are  so  simple  that 
the  average  man  would  hardly  dignify  them  with 

*  Time  and  again  the  experimenter  in  the  mechanic  arts  will  find  him- 
self face  to  face  with  the  problem  as  to  whether  he  had  better  make  imme- 
diate practical  use  of  the  knowledge  which  he  has  attained,  or  wait  until 
some  positive  finahty  in  his  conclusions  has  been  reached.  He  recognizes 
clearly  the  fact  that  he  has  already  made  some  definite  progress,  but  sees 
the  possibihty  (even  the  probabihty)  of  stiU  further  improvement.  Each 
particular  case  must  of  course  be  independently  considered,  but  the  general 
conclusion  we  have  reached  is  that  in  most  instances  it  is  wise  to  put  one's 
conclusions  as  soon  as  possible  to  the  rigid  test  of  practical  use.  The  one 
indispensable  condition  for  such  a  test,  however,  is  that  the  e.vperimenter 
shall  have  full  opportunity,  coupled  with  sufficient  authority,  to  insure  a 
thorough  and  impartial  trial.  And  this,  owing  to  the  almost  universal 
prejudice  in  favor  of  the  old,  and  to  the  suspicion  of  the  new,  is  difficult 
to  get. 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     117 

the  name  of  a  science.  In  most  trades,  the  science 
is  developed  through  a  comparatively  simple  analysis 
and  time  study  of  the  movements  required  by  the 
workmen  to  do  some  small  part  of  his  work,  and  this 
study  is  usually  made  by  a  man  equipped  merely 
with  a  stop-watch  and  a  properly  ruled  notebook. 
Hundreds  of  these  ''time-study  men"  are  now 
engaged  in  developing  elementary  scientific  knowl- 
edge where  before  existed  only  rule  of  thumb.  Even 
the  motion  study  of  Mr.  Gilbreth  in  bricklaying 
(described  on  pages  77  to  84)  involves  a  much 
more  elaborate  investigation  than  that  which  oc- 
curs in  most  cases.  The  general  steps  to  be  taken 
in  developing  a  simple  law  of  this  class  are  as 
follows : 

First.  Find,  say,  10  or  15  different  men  (preferably 
in  as  many  separate  estabHshments  and  different 
parts  of  the  country)  who  are  especially  skilful  in 
doing  the  particular  work  to  be  analyzed. 

Second.  Study  the  exact  series  of  elementary 
operations  or  motions  which  each  of  these  men 
uses  in  doing  the  work  which  is  being  investigated, 
as  well  as  the  implements  each  man  uses. 

Third.  Study  with  a  stop-watch  the  time  required 
to  make  each  of  these  elementary  movements  and 
then  select  the  quickest  way  of  doing  each  element 
of  the  work. 

Fourth.  Eliminate  all  false  movements,  slow  move- 
ments, and  useless  movements. 

Fifth.  After  doing  away  with  all  unnecessary 
movements,    collect   into   one    series    the    quickest 


118    THE  PRI^XIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

and   best    movements   as   well   as  the  best  imple- 
ments. 

This  one  new  method,  involving  that  series  of 
motions  which  can  be  made  quickest  and  best,  is 
then  substituted  in  place  of  the  ten  or  fifteen  infe- 
rior series  which  were  formerly  in  use.  This  best 
method  becomes  standard,  and  remains  standard, 
to  be  taught  first  to  the  teachers  (or  functional 
foremen)  and  by  them  to  every  workman  in  the 
estabhshment  until  it  is  superseded  by  a  quicker 
and  better  series  of  movements.  In  this  simple 
way  one  element  after  another  of  the  science  is 
developed. 

In  the  same  way  each  type  of  implement  used  in 
a  trade  is  studied.  Under  the  philosophy  of  the 
management  of  ''initiative  and  incentive"  each  work- 
man is  called  upon  to  use  his  own  best  judgment, 
so  as  to  do  the  work  in  the  quickest  time,  and  from 
this  results  in  all  cases  a  large  variety  in  the  shapes 
and  types  of  implements  which  are  used  for  any 
specific  purpose.  Scientific  management  requires, 
first,  a  careful  investigation  of  each  of  the  many 
modifications  of  the  same  implement,  developed 
under  rule  of  thumb;  and  second,  after  a  time  study 
has  been  made  of  the  speed  attainable  with  each 
of  these  implements,  that  the  good  points  of  several 
of  them  shall  be  united  in  a  single  standard  imple- 
ment, which  wiU  enable  the  workman  to  work  faster 
and  with  greater  ease  than  he  could  before.  This 
one  implement,  then,  is  adopted  as  standard  in 
place   of   the  many  different   kinds   before  in  use, 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT    119 

and  it  remains  standard  for  all  workmen  to  use 
until  superseded  by  an  implement  which  has  been 
shown,  through  motion  and  time  study,  to  be  still 
better. 

With  this  explanation  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
development  of  a  science  to  replace  rule  of  thumb 
is  in  most  cases  by  no  means  a  formidable  under- 
taking, and  that  it  can  be  accomplished  by  ordinary, 
every-day  men  without  any  elaborate  scientific  train- 
ing; but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  successful  use 
of  even  the  simplest  improvement  of  tliis  kind  calls 
for  records,  system,  and  cooperation  where  in  the 
past  existed  only  individual  effort. 

There  is  another  type  of  scientific  investigation 
which  has  been  referred  to  several  times  in  this 
paper,  and  which  should  receive  special  attention, 
namely,  the  accurate  study  of  the  motives  which 
influence  men.  At  first  it  may  appear  that  this  is 
a  matter  for  individual  observation  and  judgment, 
and  is  not  a  proper  subject  for  exact  scientific  experi- 
ments. It  is  true  that  the  laws  which  result  from 
experiments  of  this  class,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
very  complex  organism — the  human  being  —  is  being 
experimented  with,  are  subject  to  a  larger  number 
of  exceptions  than  is  the  case  with  laws  relating 
to  material  things.  And  yet  laws  of  this  kind, 
which  apply  to  a  large  majority  of  men,  unquestion- 
ably exist,  and  when  clearly  defined  are  of  great 
value  as  a  guide  in  deahng  with  men.  In  develop- 
ing these  laws,  accurate,  carefully  planned  and 
executed  experiments,  extending  through  a  term  of 


120    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

years,  have  been  made,  similar  in  a  general  way  to 
the  experiments  upon  various  other  elements  which 
have  been  referred  to  in  this  paper. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  law  belonging  to 
this  class,  in  its  relation  to  scientific  management, 
is  the  effect  which  the  task  idea  has  upon  the 
efficiency  of  the  workman.  This,  in  fact,  has 
become  such  an  important  element  of  the  mechanism 
of  scientific  management,  that  by  a  great  number  of 
people  scientific  management  has  come  to  be  known 
as  ''task  management." 

There  is  absolutely  nothing  new  in  the  task  idea. 
Each  one  of  us  will  remember  that  in  his  own  case 
this  idea  was  applied  with  good  results  in  his  school- 
boy days.  No  efficient  teacher  would  think  of  giving 
a  class  of  students  an  indefinite  lesson  to  learn.  Each 
day  a  definite,  clear-cut  task  is  set  by  the  teacher 
before  each  scholar,  stating  that  he  must  learn  just 
so  much  of  the  subject;  and  it  is  only  by  this  means 
that  proper,  systematic  progress  can  be  made  by 
the  students.  The  average  boy  would  go  very 
slowly  if,  instead  of  being  given  a  task,  he  were  told 
to  do  as  much  as  he  could.  All  of  us  are  grown-up 
children,  and  it  is  equally  true  that  the  average 
workman  will  work  with  the  greatest  satisfaction, 
both  to  himself  and  to  his  employer,  when  he  is 
given  each  day  a  definite  task  which  he  is  to  perform 
in  a  given  time,  and  which  constitutes  a  proper 
day's  work  for  a  good  workman.  This  furnishes 
the  workman  with  a  clear-cut  standard,  by  which  he 
can  throughout  the  day  measure  his  own  progress, 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT     121 

and  the  accomplishment  of  which  affords  him  the 
greatest  satisfaction. 

The  writer  has  described  in  other  papers  a  series 
of  experiments  made  upon  workmen,  which  have 
resulted  in  demonstrating  the  fact  that  it  is  impos- 
sible, through  any  long  period  of  time,  to  get  work- 
men to  work  much  harder  than  the  average  men 
around  them,  unless  they  are  assured  a  large  and 
a  permanent  increase  in  their  pay.  This  series  of 
experiments,  however,  also  proved  that  plenty  of 
workmen  can  be  found  who  are  willing  to  work 
at  their  best  speed,  provided  they  are  given  this 
hberal  increase  in  wages.  The  workman  must, 
however,  be  fully  assured  that  this  increase  beyond 
the  average  is  to  be  permanent.  Our  experiments 
have  shown  that  the  exact  percentage  of  increase 
required  to  make  a  workman  work  at  his  highest 
speed  depends  upon  the  kind  of  work  which  the 
man  is  doing. 

It  is  absolutely  necessary,  then,  when  workmen 
are  daily  given  a  task  which  calls  for  a  high  rate 
of  speed  on  their  part,  that  they  should  also  be 
insured  the  necessary  high  rate  of  pay  whenever 
they  are  successful.  This  involves  not  only  fixing 
for  each  man  his  daily  task,  but  also  paying  him  a 
large  bonus,  or  premium,  each  time  that  he  succeeds 
in  doing  his  task  in  the  given  time.  It  is  difficult 
to  appreciate  in  full  measure  the  help  which  the 
proper  use  of  thes-e  two  elements  is  to  the  workman 
in  elevating  him  to  the  highest  standard  of  efficiency 
and  speed  in  his  trade,  and  then  keeping  him  there, 


122    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

unless  one  has  seen  first  the  old  plan  and  afterward 
the  new  tried  upon  the  same  man.  And  in  fact 
until  one  has  seen  similar  accurate  experiments 
made  upon  various  grades  of  workmen  engaged  in 
doing  T^ddely  different  tj^pes  of  work.  The  remark- 
able and  almost  uniforml}^  good  results  from  the  cor- 
rect apphcation  of  the  task  and  the  bonus  must  be 
seen  to  be  appreciated. 

These  two  elements,  the  task  and  the  bonus 
(which,  as  has  been  pointed  out  in  previous  papers, 
can  be  applied  in  several  waj's),  constitute  two  of 
the  most  important  elements  of  the  mechanism  of 
scientific  management.  The}^  are  especially  impor- 
tant from  the  fact  that  they  are,  as  it  were,  a  chmax, 
demanding  before  they  can  be  used  almost  all  of 
the  other  elements  of  the  mechanism;  such  as  a 
planning  department,  accurate  time  study,  standard- 
ization of  methods  and  implements,  a  routing  system, 
the  training  of  functional  foremen  or  teachers,  and 
in  man}"  cases  instruction  cards,  slide-rules,  etc. 
(Referred  to  later  in  rather  more  detail  on  page  129.) 

The  necessity  for  systematically  teaching  work- 
men how  to  work  to  the  best  advantage  has  been 
several  times  referred  to.  It  seems  desirable,  there- 
fore, to  explain  in  rather  more  detail  how  this  teach- 
ing is  done.  In  the  case  of  a  machine-shop  which 
is  managed  under  the  modem  system,  detailed 
T\Titten  instructions  as  to  the  best  way  of  doing 
each  piece  of  work  are  prepared  in  advance,  by  men 
in  the  planning  department.  These  instructions 
represent   the   combined   work   of   several   men   in 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT    123 

the  planning  room,  each  of  whom  has  his  own 
specialty,  or  function.  One  of  them,  for  instance,  is 
a  speciaHst  on  the  proper  speeds  and  cutting  tools 
to  be  used.  He  uses  the  slide-rules  which  have  been 
above  described  as  an  aid,  to  guide  him  in  obtaining 
proper  speeds,  etc.  Another  man  analyzes  the  best 
and  quickest  motions  to  be  made  by  the  workman  in 
setting  the  work  up  in  the  machine  and  removing  it, 
etc.  Still  a  third,  through  the  time-study  records 
which  have  been  accumulated,  makes  out  a  time- 
table giving  the  proper  speed  for  doing  each  element 
of  the  work.  The  directions  of  all  of  these  men, 
however,  are  written  on  a  single  instruction  card,  or 
sheet. 

These  men  of  necessity  spend  most  of  their  time  in 
the  planning  department,  because  they  must  be  close 
to  the  records  and  data  which  they  continually  use 
in  their  work,  and  because  this  work  requires  the 
use  of  a  desk  and  freedom  from  interruption.  Human 
nature  is  such,  however,  that  many  of  the  workmen, 
if  left  to  themselves,  would  pay  but  little  attention 
to  their  written  instructions.  It  is  necessary,  there- 
fore, to  provide  teachers  (called  functional  fore- 
men) to  see  that  the  workmen  both  understand 
and  carry  out  these  written  instructions. 

Under  functional  management,  the  old-fashioned 
single  foreman  is  superseded  by  eight  different  men, 
each  one  of  whom  has  his  own  special  duties,  and 
these  men,  acting  as  the  agents  for  the  planning 
department  (see  paragraph  234  to  245  of  the  paper  en- 
titled ''Shop  Management"),  are  the  expert  teachers, 


12i    THE  PRINCIPLES   OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

who  are  at  all  times  in  the  shop,  helping  and 
directing  the  workmen.  Being  each  one  chosen  for 
his  knowledge  and  personal  skill  in  his  specialty, 
they  are  able  not  only  to  tell  the  workman  what  he 
should  do,  but  in  case  of  necessity  they  do  the  work 
themselves  in  the  presence  of  the  workman,  so  as 
to  show  him  not  only  the  best  but  also  the  quickest 
methods. 

One  of  these  teachers  (called  the  inspector)  sees 
to  it  that  he  understands  the  drawings  and  instruc- 
tions for  doing  the  work.  He  teaches  him  how  to 
do  work  of  the  right  quahty;  how  to  make  it  fine 
and  exact  where  it  should  be  fine,  and  rough  and 
quick  where  accuracy  is  not  required,  —  the  one 
being  just  as  important  for  success  as  the  other. 
The  second  teacher  (the  gang  boss)  shows  him  how 
to  set  up  the  job  in  his  machine,  and  teaches  him  to 
make  all  of  his  personal  motions  in  the  quickest  and 
best  way.  The  third  (the  speed  boss)  sees  that  the 
machine  is  run  at  the  best  speed  and  that  the  proper 
tool  is  used  in  the  particular  way  which  will  enable 
the  machine  to  finish  its  product  in  the  shortest 
possible  time.  In  addition  to  the  assistance  given 
by  these  teachers,  the  workman  receives  orders  and 
help  from  four  other  men;  from  the  ''repair  boss" 
as  to  the  adjustment,  cleanliness,  and  general 
care  of  his  machine,  belting,  etc.;  from  the  ''time 
clerk,"  as  to  everj-thing  relating  to  his  pay  and  to 
proper  T^Titten  reports  and  returns;  from  the  "route 
clerk,"  as  to  the  order  in  which  he  does  his  work  and 
as  to  the  movement  of  the  work  from  one  part  of 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT    125 

the  shop  to  another;  and,  in  case  a  workman  gets 
into  any  trouble  with  any  of  his  various  bosses,  the 
''discipHnarian"  interviews  him. 

It  must  be  understood,  of  course,  that  all  work- 
men engaged  on  the  same  kind  of  work  do  not  require 
the  same  amount  of  individual  teaching  and  atten- 
tion from  the  functional  foremen.  The  men  who  are 
new  at  a  given  operation  naturally  require  far  more 
teaching  and  watching  than  those  who  have  been  a 
long  time  at  the  same  kind  of  jobs. 

Now,  when  through  all  of  this  teaching  and  this 
minute  instruction  the  work  is  apparently  made  so 
smooth  and  easy  for  the  workman,  the  first  impres- 
sion is  that  this  all  tends  to  make  him  a  mere  autom- 
aton, a  wooden  man.  As  the  workmen  frequently 
say  when  they  first  come  under  this  system,  "Why, 
I  am  not  allowed  to  think  or  move  without  some 
one  interfering  or  doing  it  for  me!"  The  same  criti- 
cism and  objection,  however,  can  be  raised  against 
all  other  modern  subdivision  of  labor.  It  does  not 
follow,  for  example,  that  the  modem  surgeon  is  any 
more  narrow  or  wooden  a  man  than  the  early  settler 
of  this  country.  The  frontiersman,  however,  had  to 
be  not  only  a  surgeon,  but  also  an  architect,  house- 
builder,  lumberman,  farmer,  soldier,  and  doctor,  and 
he  had  to  settle  his  law  cases  with  a  gun.  You  would 
hardly  say  that  the  life  of  the  modern  surgeon  is 
any  more  narrowing,  or  that  he  is  more  of  a  wooden 
man  than  the  frontiersman.  The  many  problems 
to  be  met  and  solved  by  the  surgeon  are  just 
as  intricate   and   difficult   and   as   developing    and 


126    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

broadening  in  their  way  as  were  those  of  the  fron- 
tiersman. 

And  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  training 
of  the  surgeon  has  been  almost  identical  in  type 
with  the  teaching  and  training  which  is  given  to 
the  workman  under  scientific  management.  The 
surgeon,  all  through  his  early  years,  is  under  the 
closest  supervision  of  more  experienced  men,  who 
show  him  in  the  minutest  way  how  each  element 
of  his  work  is  best  done.  They  provide  him  with 
the  finest  implements,  each  one  of  which  has  been 
the  subject  of  special  study  and  development,  and 
then  insist  upon  his  using  each  of  these  implements 
in  the  very  best  way.  All  of  this  teaching,  however, 
in  no  way  narrows  liim.  On  the  contrary  he  is 
quickly  given  the  very  best  knowledge  of  his  pre- 
decessors; and,  provided  (as  he  is,  right  from  the 
start)  with  standard  implements  and  methods  which 
represent  the  best  knowledge  of  the  world  up  to 
date,  he  is  able  to  use  his  o-^ti  originality  and  inge- 
nuity to  make  real  additions  to  the  world's  knowl- 
edge, instead  of  reinventing  things  which  are  old. 
In  a  similar  way  the  workman  who  is  cooperating 
with  his  many  teachers  under  scientific  management 
has  an  opportunity  to  develop  which  is  at  least  as 
good  as  and  generally  better  than  that  which  he  had 
when  the  whole  problem  was  ''up  to  him"  and  he 
did  his  work  entirely  unaided. 

If  it  were  true  that  the  workman  would  develop 
into  a  larger  and  finer  man  without  all  of  this  teach- 
ing, and  without  the  help  of  the  laws  which  have 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     127 

been  formulated  for  doing  his  particular  job,  then 
it  would  follow  that  the  young  man  who  now  comes 
to  college  to  have  the  help  of  a  teacher  in  mathe- 
matics, physics,  chemistry,  Latin,  Greek,  etc.,  would 
do  better  to  study  these  things  unaided  and  by 
himself.  The  only  difference  in  the  two  cases  is 
that  students  come  to  their  teachers,  while  from  the 
nature  of  the  work  done  by  the  mechanic  under 
scientific  management,  the  teachers  must  go  to  him. 
What  really  happens  is  that,  with  the  aid  of  the 
science  which  is  invariably  developed,  and  through 
the  instructions  from  his  teachers,  each  workman 
of  a  given  intellectual  capacity  is  enabled  to  do  a 
much  higher,  more  interesting,  and  finally  more 
developing  and  more  profitable  kind  of  work  than 
he  was  before  able  to  do.  The  laborer  who  before 
was  unable  to  do  anything  beyond,  perhaps,  shoveling 
and  wheeling  dirt  from  place  to  place,  or.  carrying 
the  work  from  one  part  of  the  shop  to  another,  is 
in  many  cases  taught  to  do  the  more  elementary 
machinist's  work,  accompanied  by  the  agreeable  sur- 
roundings and  the  interesting  variety  and  higher 
wages  which  go  with  the  machinist's  trade.  The 
cheap  machinist  or  helper,  who  before  was  able  to 
run  perhaps  merely  a  drill  press,  is  taught  to  do  the 
more  intricate  and  higher  priced  lathe  and  planer 
work,  while  the  highly  skilled  and  more  intelligent 
machinists  become  functional  foremen  and  teachers. 
And  so  on,  right  up  the  line. 

It   may   seem   that   with   scientific   management 
there  is  not  the  same  incentive  for  the  workman  to 


128    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

use  his  ingenuity  in  devising  new  and  better  methods 
of  doing  the  work,  as  well  as  in  improving  his  imple- 
ments, that  there  is  with  the  old  type  of  manage- 
ment. It  is  true  that  with  scientific  management 
the  workman  is  not  allowed  to  use  whatever  imple- 
ments and  methods  he  sees  fit  in  the  daily  practise 
of  his  work.  Every  encouragement,  however,  should 
be  given  him  to  suggest  improvements,  both  in 
methods  and  in  implements.  And  whenever  a  work- 
man proposes  an  improvement,  it  should  be  the 
policy  of  the  management  to  make  a  careful  analysis 
of  the  new  method,  and  if  necessary  conduct  a  series 
of  experiments  to  determine  accurately  the  relative 
merit  of  the  new  suggestion  and  of  the  old  standard. 
And  whenever  the  new  method  is  found  to  be 
markedly  superior  to  the  old,  it  should  be  adopted 
as  the  standard  for  the  whole  establishment.  The 
workman  should  be  given  the  full  credit  for  the 
improvement,  and  should  be  paid  a  cash  premium 
as  a  reward  for  his  ingenuity.  In  this  way  the  true 
initiative  of  the  workmen  is  better  attained  under 
scientific  management  than  under  the  old  individual 
plan. 

The  history  of  the  development  of  scientific 
management  up  to  date,  however,  calls  for  a  word 
of  warning.  The  mechanism  of  management  must 
not  be  mistaken  for  its  essence,  or  underlying 
philosophy.  Precisely  the  same  mechanism  will  in 
one  case  produce  disastrous  results  and  in  another 
the  most  beneficent.  The  same  mechanism  which 
will  produce  the  finest  results  when  made  to  serve 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     129 

the  underljdng  principles  of  scientific  management, 
will  lead  to  failure  and  disaster  if  accompanied  by 
the  wrong  spirit  in  those  who  are  using  it.  Hun- 
dreds of  people  have  already  mistaken  the  mechan- 
ism of  this  system  for  its  essence.  Messrs.  Gantt, 
Barth,  and  the  writer  have  presented  papers  to  the 
American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers  on  the 
subject  of  scientific  management.  In  these  papers 
the  mechanism  which  is  used  has  been  described  at 
some  length.  As  elements  of  this  mechanism  may 
be  cited: 

Time  study,  with  the  implements  and  methods 
for  properly  making  it. 

Functional  or  divided  foremanship  and  its 
superiority'  to  the  old-fashioned  single  foreman. 

The  standardization  of  all  tools  and  implements 
used  in  the  trades,  and  also  of  the  acts  or  move- 
ments of  workmen  for  each  class  of  work. 

The  desirability  of  a  planning  room  or  depart- 
ment. 

The  "exception  principle"  in  management. 

The  use  of  slide-rules  and  similar  time-saving 
implements. 

Instruction  cards  for  the  workman. 

The  task  idea  in  management,  accompanied  by 
a  large  bonus  for  the  successful  performance  of  the 
task. 

The  "differential  rate." 

Mnemonic  systems  for  classifying  manufactured 
products  as  well  as  implements  used  in  manu- 
facturing. 


130    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIEXTLFIC  MANAGEMENT 

A  routing  system. 

Modern  cost  system,  etc.,  etc. 

These  are,  however,  merely  the  elements  or  details 
of  the  mechanism  of  management.  Scientific  man- 
agement, in  its  essence,  consists  of  a  certain  philoso- 
phy-, which  results,  as  before  stated,  in  a  combination 
of  the  four  great  underlying  principles  of  manage- 
ment :  ^ 

^Mien,  however,  the  elements  of  this  mechanism, 
such  as  time  study,  functional  foremanship,  etc., 
are  used  without  being  accompanied  by  the  true 
philosophy  of  management,  the  results  are  in  many 
cases  disastrous.  And,  unfortunately,  even  when 
men  who  are  thoroughly  in  sjTupathy  with  the 
principles  of  scientific  management  imdertake  to 
change  too  rapidly  from  the  old  t^-pe  to  the  new, 
without  heeding  the  warnings  of  those  who  have 
had  years  of  experience  in  making  this  change, 
the}'  frequently  meet  with  serious  troubles,  and 
sometimes  T\ith  strikes,  followed  b}^  failure. 

The  -vsTiter,  in  his  paper  on  ''Shop  ^lanagement," 
has  called  especial  attention  to  the  risks  which 
managers  nm  in  attempting  to  change  rapidly  from 
the  old  to  the  new  management.  In  many  cases, 
however,  this  warning  has  not  been  heeded.  The 
physical  changes  which  are  needed,  the  actual 
time  study  which  has  to  be  made,  the  standardiza- 
tion of  all  implements  connected  with  the  work, 

1  First.  The  development  of  a  true  science.  Second.  The  scientific 
selection  of  the  workman.  Third.  His  scientific  education  and  develop- 
ment. Fourth.  Intimate  friendly  cooperation  between  the  management 
and  the  men. 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     131 

the  necessity  for  individually  studying  each  machine 
and  placing  it  in  perfect  order,  all  take  time,  but 
the  faster  these  elements  of  the  work  are  studied 
and  improved,  the  better  for  the  undertaking.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  really  great  problem  involved 
in  a  change  from  the  management  of  '' initiative 
and  incentive"  to  scientific  management  consists  in 
a  complete  revolution  in  the  mental  attitude  and 
the  habits  of  all  of  those  engaged  in  the  management, 
as  well  of  the  workmen.  And  this  change  can  be 
brought  about  only  gradually  and  through  the  presen- 
tation of  many  object-lessons  to  the  workman,  which, 
together  with  the  teaching  which  he  receives, 
thoroughly  convince  him  of  the  superiority  of  the 
new  over  the  old  way  of  doing  the  work.  This 
change  in  the  mental  attitude  of  the  workman 
imperatively  demands  time.  It  is  impossible  to 
hurry  it  beyond  a  certain  speed.  The  writer  has 
over  and  over  again  warned  those  who  contemplated 
making  this  change  that  it  was  a  matter,  even  in  a 
simple  establishment,  of  from  two  to  three  years, 
and  that  in  some  cases  it  requires  from  four  to  five 
years. 

The  first  few  changes  which  affect  the  workmen 
should  be  made  exceedingly  slowly,  and  only  one 
workman  at  a  time  should  be  dealt  with  at  the 
start.  Until  this  single  man  has  been  thoroughly 
convinced  that  a  great  gain  has  come  to  him  from 
the  new  method,  no  further  change  should  be  made. 
Then  one  man  after  another  should  be  tactfully 
changed  over.     After  passing  the  point  at  which 


132    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

from  one-fourth  to  one-third  of  the  men  in  the  employ 
of  the  company  have  been  changed  from  the  old  to 
the  new,  very  rapid  progress  can  be  made,  because 
at  about  this  time  there  is,  generally,  a  complete 
revolution  in  the  public  opinion  of  the  whole  estab- 
lishment and  practically  all  of  the  workmen  who 
are  working  under  the  old  system  become  desir- 
ous to  share  in  the  benefits  which  they  see  have 
been  received  by  those  working  under  the  new 
plan. 

Inasmuch  as  the  writer  has  personally  retired  from 
the  business  of  introducing  this  system  of  manage- 
ment (that  is,  from  all  work  done  in  return  for  any 
money  compensation),  he  does  not  hesitate  again  to 
emphasize  the  fact  that  those  companies  are  indeed 
fortunate  who  can  secure  the  services  of  experts 
who  have  had  the  necessary  practical  experience  in 
introducing  scientific  management,  and  who  have 
made  a  special  study  of  its  principles.  It  is  not 
enough  that  a  man  should  have  been  a  manager 
in  an  establishment  which  is  run  under  the  new 
principles.  The  man  who  undertakes  to  direct  the 
steps  to  be  taken  in  changing  from  the  old  to  the 
new  (particularly  in  any  establishment  doing  elab- 
orate work)  must  have  had  personal  experience  in 
overcoming  the  especial  difficulties  which  are  always 
met  with,  and  which  are  peculiar  to  this  period  of 
transition.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  writer 
expects  to  devote  the  rest  of  his  life  chiefly  to  try- 
ing to  help  those  who  wish  to  take  up  this  work  as 
their  profession,  and  to  advising  the  managers  and 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     133 

owners  of  companies  in  general  as  to  the  steps  which 
they  should  take  in  making  this  change. 

As  a  warning  to  those  who  contemplate  adopting 
scientific  management,  the  following  instance  is 
given.  Several  men  who  lacked  the  extended  experi- 
ence which  is  required  to  change  without  danger 
of  strikes,  or  without  interference  with  the  success 
of  the  business,  from  the  management  of  ''initia- 
tive and  incentive"  to  scientific  management,  at- 
tempted rapidly  to  increase  the  output  in  quite  an 
elaborate  establishment,  employing  between  three 
thousand  and  four  thousand  men.  Those  who  un- 
dertook to  make  this  change  were  men  of  unusual 
ability,  and  were  at  the  same  time  enthusiasts  and 
I  think  had  the  interests  of  the  workmen  truly  at 
heart.  They  were,  however,  warned  by  the  writer, 
before  starting,  that  they  must  go  exceedingly  slowly, 
and  that  the  work  of  making  the  change  in  this  estab- 
lishment could  not  be  done  in  less  than  from  three  to 
five  years.  This  warning  they  entirely  disregarded. 
They  evidently  beheved  that  by  using  much  of  the 
mechanism  of  scientific  management,  in  combination 
with  the  principles  of  the  management  of  ''initiative 
and  incentive,"  instead  of  with  the  principles  of 
scientific  management,  that  they  could  do,  in  a 
year  or  two,  what  had  been  proved  in  the  past  to 
require  at  least  double  this  time.  The  knowledge 
obtained  from  accurate  time  study,  for  example,  is 
a  powerful  implement,  and  can  be  used,  in  one  case 
to  promote  harmony  between  the  workmen  and  the 
management,  by  gradually  educating,  training,  and 


134     THE   PRINXIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

leading  the  workmen  into  new  and  better  methods 
of  doing  the  work,  or,  in  the  other  case,  it  may  be 
used  more  or  less  as  a  club  to  drive  the  workmen 
into  doing  a  larger  daj^'s  work  for  approximately 
the  same  pay  that  they  received  in  the  past.  Unfor- 
tunately the  men  who  had  charge  of  this  work  did 
not  take  the  time  and  the  trouble  required  to  train 
functional  foremen,  or  teachers,  who  were  fitted 
gradually  to  lead  and  educate  the  workmen.  They 
attempted,  through  the  old-style  foreman,  armed  with 
his  new  weapon  (accurate  time  study),  to  drive  the 
workmen,  against  their  wishes,  and  without  much 
increase  in  pay,  to  work  much  harder,  instead  of 
graduall}"  teaching  and  leading  them  toward  new 
methods,  and  convincing  them  through  object- 
lessons  that  task  management  means  for  them  some- 
what harder  work,  but  also  far  greater  prosperity. 
The  result  of  all  this  disregard  of  fundamental  prin- 
ciples was  a  series  of  strikes,  followed  by  the  down- 
fall of  the  men  who  attempted  to  make  the  change, 
and  by  a  return  to  conditions  throughout  the  estab- 
lishment far  worse  than  those  which  existed  before 
the  effort  was  made. 

This  instance  is  cited  as  an  object-lesson  of  the 
futihty  of  using  the  mechanism  of  the  new  manage- 
ment while  leaving  out  its  essence,  and  also  of  trjdng 
to  shorten  a  necessarily  long  operation  in  entire 
disregard  of  past  experience.  It  should  be  empha- 
sized that  the  men  who  undertook  this  work  were 
both  able  and  earnest,  and  that  failure  was  not  due 
to  lack  of  abihty  on  their  part,  but  to  their  under- 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     135 

taking  to  do  the  impossible.  These  particular  men 
will  not  again  make  a  similar  mistake,  and  it  is 
hoped  that  their  experience  may  act  as  a  warning 
to  others. 

In  this  connection,  however,  it  is  proper  to  again 
state  that  during  the  thirty  years  that  we  have  been 
engaged  in  introducing  scientific  management  there 
has  not  been  a  single  strike  from  those  who  were 
working  in  accordance  with  its  principles,  even 
during  the  critical  period  when  the  change  was 
being  made  from  the  old  to  the  new.  If  proper 
methods  are  used  by  men  who  have  had  experience 
in  this  work,  there  is  absolutely  no  danger  from 
strikes  or  other  troubles. 

The  writer  would  again  insist  that  in  no  case 
should  the  managers  of  an  establishment,  the  work 
of  which  is  elaborate,  undertake  to  change  from  the 
old  to  the  new  type  unless  the  directors  of  the  com- 
pany fully  understand  and  believe  in  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  scientific  management  and  unless 
they  appreciate  all  that  is  involved  in  making  this 
change,  particularly  the  time  required,  and  unless 
they  want  scientific  management  greatly. 

Doubtless  some  of  those  who  are  especially  in- 
terested in  working  men  will  complain  because  under 
scientific  management  the  workman,  when  he  is 
shown  how  to  do  twice  as  much  work  as  he  formerly 
did,  is  not  paid  twice  his  former  wages,  while  others 
who  are  more  interested  in  the  dividends  than  the 
workmen  will  complain  that  under  this  system  the 
men  receive  much  higher  wages  than  they  did  before. 


136    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

It  does  seem  grossly  unjust  when  the  bare  state- 
ment is  made  that  the  competent  pig-iron  handler, 
for  instance,  who  has  been  so  trained  that  he  piles 
3ro-  times  as  much  iron  as  the  incompetent  man 
formerly  did,  should  receive  an  increase  of  only 
60  per  cent,  in  wages. 

It  is  not  fair,  however,  to  form  any  final  judgment 
until  all  of  the  elements  in  the  case  have  been  con- 
sidered. At  the  first  glance  we  see  only  two  parties 
to  the  transaction,  the  workmen  and  their  employers. 
We  overlook  the  third  great  party,  the  whole  people, 
—  the  consumers,  who  buy  the  product  of  the  first 
two  and  who  ultimately  pay  both  the  wages  of  the 
workmen  and  the  profits  of  the  employers. 

The  rights  of  the  people  are  therefore  greater  than 
those  of  either  employer  or  employe.  And  this 
third  great  party  should  be  given  its  proper  share  of 
any  gain.  In  fact,  a  glance  at  industrial  history 
shows  that  in  the  end  the  whole  people  receive  the 
greater  part  of  the  benefit  coming  from  industrial 
improvements.  In  the  past  hundred  years,  for 
example,  the  greatest  factor  tending  toward  increas- 
ing the  output,  and  thereby  the  prosperity  of  the 
civihzed  world,  has  been  the  introduction  of  machin- 
ery to  replace  hand  labor.  And  without  doubt  the 
greatest  gain  through  this  change  has  come  to  the 
whole  people  —  the  consumer. 

Through  short  periods,  especially  in  the  case  of 
patented  apparatus,  the  dividends  of  those  who  have 
introduced  new  machinery  have  been  greatly  in- 
creased, and  in  many  cases,  though  unfortunately 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     137 

not  universally,  the  employes  have  obtained  materi- 
ally higher  wages,  shorter  hours,  and  better  working 
conditions.  But  in  the  end  the  major  part  of  the 
gain  has  gone  to  the  whole  people. 

And  this  result  will  follow  the  introduction  of 
scientific  management  just  as  surely  as  it  has  the 
introduction  of  machinery. 

To  return  to  the  case  of  the  pig-iron  handler.  We 
must  assume,  then,  that  the  larger  part  of  the  gain 
which  has  come  from  his  great  increase  in  output 
will  in  the  end  go  to  the  people  in  the  form  of  cheaper 
pig-iron.  And  before  deciding  upon  how  the  balance 
is  to  be  divided  between  the  workmen  and  the 
employer,  as  to  what  is  just  and  fair  compensation 
for  the  man  who  does  the  pihng  and  what  should  be 
left  for  the  company  as  profit,  we  must  look  at  the 
matter  from  all  sides. 

First.  As  we  have  before  stated,  the  pig-iron 
handler  is  not  an  extraordinary  man  difficult  to  find, 
he  is  merely  a  man  more  or  less  of  the  type  of  the  ox, 
heavy  both  mentally  and  physically. 

Second.  The  work  which  this  man  does  tires  him 
no  more  than  any  healthy  normal  laborer  is  tired 
by  a  proper  day's  work.  (If  this  man  is  overtired 
by  his  work,  then  the  task  has  been  wrongly  set  and 
this  is  as  far  as  possible  from  the  object  of  scientific 
management.) 

Third.  It  was  not  due  to  this  man's  initiative 
or  originality  that  he  did  his  big  day's  work,  but  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  science  of  pig-iron  handling 
developed  and  taught  him  by  some  one  else. 


138    THE  PRIXCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

Fourth.  It  is  just  and  fair  that  men  of  the  same 
general  grade  (when  their  all-round  capacities  are 
considered)  should  be  paid  about  the  same  wages 
when  they  are  all  working  to  the  best  of  their  abilities. 
(It  would  be  grossly  unjust  to  other  laborers,  for 
instance,  to  pay  this  man  3A  as  high  wages  as  other 
men  of  his  general  grade  receive  for  an  honest  full 
da3^'s  work.) 

Fifth.  As  is  explained  (page  74),  the  60  per  cent, 
increase  in  pay  which  he  received  was  not  the  result 
of  an  arbitrarj^  judgment  of  a  foreman  or  superin- 
tendent, it  was  the  result  of  a  long  series  of  careful 
experiments  impartiall}^  made  to  determine  what 
compensation  is  reaUy  for  the  man's  true  and  best 
interest  when  all  things  are  considered. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  pig-iron  handler  with  his 
60  per  cent,  increase  in  wages  is  not  an  object  for 
pit}^  but  rather  a  subject  for  congratulation. 

After  aU,  however,  facts  are  in  many  cases  more 
convincing  than  opinions  or  theories,  and  it  is  a 
significant  fact  that  those  workmen  who  have  come 
under  this  system  during  the  past  thirty  3'ears  have 
invariably  been  satisfied  with  the  increase  in  pay 
which  they  have  received,  while  their  employers  have 
been  equally  pleased  with  their  increase  in  dividends. 

The  writer  is  one  of  those  who  believes  that  more 
and  more  will  the  third  party  (the  whole  people),  as 
it  becomes  acquainted  with  the  true  facts,  insist 
that  justice  shall  be  done  to  all  three  parties.  It 
will  demand  the  largest  efficiency  from  both  em- 
ployers and  employes.     It  will  no  longer  tolerate 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     139 

the  type  of  employer  who  has  his  eye  on  dividends 
alone,  who  refuses  to  do  his  full  share  of  the  work 
and  who  merely  cracks  his  whip  over  the  heads  of 
his  workmen  and  attempts  to  drive  them  into  harder 
work  for  low  pay.  No  more  will  it  tolerate  tyranny 
on  the  part  of  labor  which  demands  one  increase 
after  another  in  pa}-  and  shorter  hours  while  at  the 
same  time  it  becomes  less  instead  of  more  efficient. 

And  the  means  which  the  writer  firmly  believes 
will  be  adopted  to  bring  about,  first,  efficiency  both 
in  employer  and  employe  and  then  an  equitable 
division  of  the  profits  of  their  joint  efforts  will  be 
scientific  management,  which  has  for  its  sole  aim 
the  attainment  of  justice  for  all  three  parties  through 
impartial  scientific  investigation  of  all  the  elements 
of  the  problem.  For  a  time  both  sides  will  rebel 
against  this  advance.  The  workers  wiU  resent  any 
interference  with  their  old  rule-of-thumb  methods, 
and  the  management  will  resent  being  asked  to  take 
on  new  duties  and  burdens;  but  in  the  end  the  people 
through  enlightened  public  opinion  will  force  the 
new  order  of  things  upon  both  employer  and  em- 
ploye. 

It  will  doubtless  be  claimed  that  in  all  that  has 
been  said  no  new  fact  has  been  brought  to  light 
that  was  not  known  to  some  one  in  the  past.  Very 
Ukely  this  is  true.  Scientific  management  does  not 
necessarily  involve  any  great  invention,  nor  the 
discovery  of  new  or  startling  facts.  It  does,  how- 
ever, involve  a  certain  comhination  of  elements 
which  have  not  existed  in  the  past,  namely,  old 


140    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

knowledge  so  collected,  analyzed,  grouped,  and  classi- 
fied into  laws  and  rules  that  it  constitutes  a  science; 
accompanied  by  a  complete  change  in  the  mental 
attitude  of  the  working  men  as  well  as  of  those  on 
the  side  of  the  management,  toward  each  other, 
and  toward  their  respective  duties  and  responsi- 
bihties.  Also,  a  new  division  of  the  duties  between 
the  two  sides  and  intimate,  friendly  cooperation 
to  an  extent  that  is  impossible  under  the  philosophy 
of  the  old  management.  And  even  all  of  this  in 
many  cases  could  not  exist  without  the  help  of 
mechanisms  which  have  been  gradually  developed. 

It  is  no  single  element,  but  rather  this  whole 
combination,  that  constitutes  scientific  manage- 
ment, which  may  be  summarized  as: 

Science,  not  rule  of  thumb. 

Harmony,  not  discord. 

Cooperation,  not  individualism. 

Maximum  output,  in  place  of  restricted  output. 

The  development  of  each  man  to  his  greatest 
efficiency  and  prosperity. 

The  writer  wishes  to  again  state  that:  ^'The  time 
is  fast  going  by  for  the  great  personal  or  individual 
achievement  of  any  one  man  standing  alone  and  with- 
out the  help  of  those  around  him.  And  the  time  is 
coming  when  all  great  things  will  be  done  by  that 
type  of  cooperation  in  which  each  man  performs  the 
function  for  which  he  is  best  suited,  each  man  pre- 
serves his  own  individuality  and  is  supreme  in  his 
particular  function,  and  each  man  at  the  same  time 
loses  none  of  his  originality  and  proper  personal 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT  141 

initiative,  and  yet  is  controlled  by  and  must  work 
harmoniously  with  many  other  men." 

The  examples  given  above  of  the  increase  in  out- 
put realized  under  the  new  management  fairly 
represent  the  gain  which  is  possible.  They  do  not 
represent  extraordinary  or  exceptional  cases,  and 
have  been  selected  from  among  thousands  of  similar 
illustrations  which  might  have  been  given. 

Let  us  now  examine  the  good  which  would  follow 
the  general  adoption  of  these  principles. 

The  larger  profit  would  come  to  the  whole  world 
in  general. 

The  greatest  material  gain  which  those  of  the  pres- 
ent generation  have  over  past  generations  has  come 
from  the  fact  that  the  average  man  in  this  generation, 
with  a  given  expenditure  of  effort,  is  producing  two 
times,  three  times,  even  four  times  as  much  of  those 
things  that  are  of  use  to  man  as  it  was  possible  for 
the  average  man  in  the  past  to  produce.  This 
increase  in  the  productivity  of  human  effort  is,  of 
course,  due  to  many  causes,  besides  the  increase  in 
the  personal  dexterity  of  the  man.  It  is  due  to 
the  discovery  of  steam  and  electricity,  to  the  intro- 
duction of  machinery,  to  inventions,  great  and  small, 
and  to  the  progress  in  science  and  education.  But 
from  whatever  cause  this  increase  in  productivity 
has  come,  it  is  to  the  greater  productivity  of  each 
individual  that  the  whole  country  owes  its  greater 
prosperity. 

Those  who  are  afraid  that  a  large  increase  in  the 
productivity  of  each  workman  will  throw  other  men 


142    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

out  of  work,  should  realize  that  the  one  element  more 
than  any  other  which  differentiates  civilized  from 
uncivilized  countries  —  prosperous  from  poverty- 
stricken  peoples  —  is  that  the  average  man  in  the 
one  is  five  or  six  times  as  productive  as  the  other. 
It  is  also  a  fact  that  the  chief  cause  for  the  large  per- 
centage of  the  unemployed  in  England  (perhaps  the 
most  virile  nation  in  the  world),  is  that  the  workmen 
of  England,  more  than  in  any  other  civilized  country, 
are  deliberately  restricting  their  output  because  they 
are  possessed  by  the  fallacy  that  it  is  against  their 
best  interest  for  each  man  to  work  as  hard  as  he  can. 
The  general  adoption  of  scientific  management 
would  readily  in  the  future  double  the  productivity 
of  the  average  man  engaged  in  industrial  work. 
Think  of  what  this  means  to  the  whole  country. 
Think  of  the  increase,  both  in  the  necessities  and 
luxuries  of  life,  which  becomes  available  for  the  whole 
country,  of  the  possibility  of  shortening  the  hours 
of  labor  when  this  is  desirable,  and  of  the  increased 
opportunities  for  education,  culture,  and  recreation 
which  this  implies.  But  while  the  whole  world 
would  profit  by  this  increase  in  production,  the 
manufacturer  and  the  workman  will  be  far  more 
interested  in  the  especial  local  gain  that  comes 
to  them  and  to  the  people  immediately  around  them. 
Scientific  management  will  mean,  for  the  employers 
and  the  workmen  who  adopt  it  —  and  particularly 
for  those  who  adopt  it  first  —  the  elimination  of 
almost  all  causes  for  dispute  and  disagreement 
between  them.     What  constitutes  a  fair  day's  work 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT     143 

will  be  a  question  for  scientific  investigation,  instead 
of  a  subject  to  be  bargained  and  haggled  over. 
Soldiering  will  cease  because  the  object  for  soldier- 
ing will  no  longer  exist.  The  great  increase  in  wages 
which  accompanies  this  type  of  management  will 
largely  eliminate  the  wage  question  as  a  source  of 
dispute.  But  more  than  all  other  causes,  the  close, 
intimate  cooperation,  the  constant  personal  con- 
tact between  the  two  sides,  will  tend  to  diminish 
friction  and  discontent.  It  is  difficult  for  two 
people  whose  interests  are  the  same,  and  who  work 
side  by  side  in  accomphshing  the  same  object,  all 
day  long,  to  keep  up  a  quarrel. 

The  low  cost  of  production  which  accompanies  a 
doubhng  of  the  output  will  enable  the  companies 
who  adopt  this  management,  particularly  those 
who  adopt  it  first,  to  compete  far  better  than  they 
were  able  to  before,  and  this  will  so  enlarge  their 
markets  that  their  men  will  have  almost  constant 
work  even  in  dull  times,  and  that  they  will  earn 
larger  profits  at  all  times. 

This  means  increase  in  prosperity  and  diminution 
in  poverty,  not  only  for  their  men  but  for  the  whole 
community  immediately  around  them. 

As  one  of  the  elements  incident  to  this  great  gain 
in  output,  each  workman  has  been  systematically 
trained  to  his  highest  state  of  efficiencj^,  and  has 
been  taught  to  do  a  higher  class  of  work  than  he 
was  able  to  do  under  the  old  types  of  management; 
and  at  the  same  time  he  has  acquired  a  friendly 
mental  attitude  toward  his  employers  and  his  whole 


144    THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

working  conditions,  whereas  before  a  considerable 
part  of  his  time  was  spent  in  criticism,  suspicious 
watchfulness,  and  sometimes  in  open  warfare.  This 
direct  gain  to  all  of  those  working  under  the  system 
is  without  doubt  the  most  important  single  element 
in  the  whole  problem. 

Is  not  the  realization  of  results  such  as  these  of 
far  more  importance  than  the  solution  of  most  of 
the  problems  which  are  now  agitating  both  the 
Enghsh  and  American  peoples?  And  is  it  not  the 
duty  of  those  who  are  acquainted  with  these  facts, 
to  exert  themselves  to  make  the  whole  community 
realize  this  importance? 


The  author  is  constantly  in  receipt  of  letters  asking  for  a  list 
of  the  companies  who  are  working  under  scientific  management.  It 
would  be  highly  improper  to  furnish  any  one  with  a  list  of  this  kind.  Many 
of  those  companies  who  have  introduced  scientific  management  would  seri- 
ously object  to  answering  the  letters  which  would  be  showered  upon  them 
if  such  a  Ust  were  given  out.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  certain  com- 
panies who  are  wiUing  to  take  the  trouble  to  answer  such  letters. 

To  all  of  those  who  are  sufficiently  interested  in  scientific  manage- 
ment, the  writer  would  most  heartily  extend  an  invitation  to  come  to  his 
house  when  they  are  in  the  neighborhood  of  Philadelphia.  He  will  be 
glad  to  show  them  the  details  of  scientific  management  as  it  is  practised 
in  several  establishments  in  Philadelphia.  Inasmuch  as  the  greater  part 
of  the  writer's  time  is  given  up  to  forwarding  the  cause  of  scientific  manage- 
ment, he  regards  visits  of  this  sort  as  a  privilege,  rather  than  as  an  intrusion. 


